Staff
The Fort Frances Lakers couldn’t have asked for a better start.
Captain Tyler Stevenson scored just 42 seconds into Friday night’s game against the visiting K&A Wolverines—and the Lakers never looked back in earning a 5-0 win.
With the win, the Lakers (11-25-4) climbed to within nine points of fourth-place K&A (15-25-5), with Fort Frances holding five games in hand.
The teams will play their final match-ups of the regular season here Feb. 19-20 in a potential first-round playoff preview.
Stevenson’s opener, his 15th goal of the season, came on a power play awarded to the Lakers before the puck even dropped.
K&A’s Pierre-Luc Mercier was handed a minor penalty for illegal equipment while lining up for the opening face-off.
Lakers’ goalie Jameson Shortreed was tested as the Wolverines looked for the equalizer, though. His best save came against Mercier, who one-timed a pass off of Hartwell Marable’s wraparound.
Shortreed flashed his glove to help keep the Wolverines off the board.
Stevenson had chances to add to his goal total with a couple of golden chances—first getting robbed on a breakaway by Wolverine goalie Eric Swanick, then having a deflection bump off the inside post and back into play.
He did hit the scoresheet again early in the third, however, breaking in with Justin Erhart and feeding his speedy sidekick a cross-crease pass that left Swanick out to dry.
Erhart easily converted for his sixth of the season.
Cody Edwards made it 3-0 after finding a puck near the K&A blueline after getting out of the penalty box.
With a head start on the K&A’s defenders, Edwards dribbled a shot through Swanick’s five-hole for his third of the year.
Erhart then netted his second of the game when he whacked home a puck that was left alone in the slot during a Lakers’ power play about a minute later.
Mike Jourdain sealed the affair with a shorthanded empty-netter at 17:26, fluttering a shot just out of reach of the Wolverines.
Shortreed turned aside all 36 shots to notch his second shutout of the season while Swanick turned aside 25 in a losing effort.
Erhart and Stevenson each finished with three points on the night, with Erhart registering four goals in his last four games.
With the win, the Lakers improved to 3-1 on their current six-game homestand, outscoring the opposition 15-8.
The Lakers next host the third-place Sioux Lookout tomorrow (Feb. 2) and then front-running Fort William on Friday (Feb. 5) before playing four in a row on the road.
