Lucas Punkari
In the span of 24 hours, the mood inside the Fort Frances Lakers’ dressing room went from euphoria to disappointment.
Following a dramatic come-from-behind 4-3 shootout victory over the Thunder Bay North Stars at the Ice For Kids Arena on Friday night, the Lakers came crashing back to earth Saturday evening with a 4-2 loss to the visiting Sioux Lookout Flyers, giving the local squad a 1-1 record to open the SIJHL regular season.
“I don’t think we showed up tonight, played to our potential, took them seriously, and played anywhere near our game plan or to what our systems are,” Lakers’ head coach and general manager Wayne Strachan following Saturday’s loss.
“I think it was summed up best in that it looked like we were playing like it was a Sunday night league hockey game, and Sioux came in and gutted out an ugly road win.
“I thought that we might have played in their zone more than they did in ours, but there was just no effort coming back to our end and there were some very lacklustre performances by many of our defencemen,” Strachan added.
Saturday’s loss definitely could be described as a wake-up call for the Lakers, who had waltzed through the pre-season with a perfect 4-0 record, including a 10-0 drubbing of the Flyers here.
“Everyone knows now that they have to show up with their ‘A’ game, and I’m glad it happened now instead of later in the year when points are crucial,” said forward Ryan Wildman.
“The boys went in over-confident and just because we beat them in the pre-season twice, that doesn’t mean that same thing is going to happen in the regular season.
“We come here to be the hardest-working team in the league, and they definitely outworked us,” he noted.
“I hope it’s eyes wide open for everybody because we just gave a team that is maybe not as skilled as us, but that definitely work as hard as us, a lot of confidence,” said Strachan.
“The next time we see them a couple of weeks from now [in Sioux Lookout on Oct. 8], they are now going to come out and believe that they can beat us,” he stressed.
After Matt Reed and Jaret Leclair traded first-period goals, Sioux Lookout took the lead just past the halfway mark of the game when Cody Block tucked the puck by Lakers’ goalie Tanner Hamilton.
Jordan Larson knotted things back up for the Lakers just 35 seconds into the third period, but the Flyers regained the lead for good only 39 seconds later when Anthony Wolfe found the back of the net following a mad scramble in front.
A.J. Merritt added a power-play marker halfway through the period to seal his team’s first win of the campaign.
“Anytime that you can win a game is always a good feeling,” said Flyers’ head coach Brad Zangs.
“I thought we were more prepared this time around than we were when we last played here, and even though we still need to tighten up a bit in certain areas, overall I’m happy,” he added.
It was a different story in the Lakers’ season-opener Friday night as they found themselves down 3-1 going into the third period to the visiting North Stars, who will be hosting the 2012 Dudley Hewitt Cup.
But as the clock wound down, it would be Larson, a Fort Frances product making his debut for the local Junior ‘A’ squad, who stepped up to the plate by scoring a pair of goals in a two-and-a-half minute span to set the stage for overtime.
“I didn’t expect to do that at all in my debut game, and it was the best feeling ever to do that right in front of the home crowd,” Larson enthused.
“On the first goal [which came on the power play with a little over five minutes to go], John Carlson shot the puck and it came onto my stick, and all I had to do was just tap the puck in, and that got both the fans and the team going.
“Then on the second goal, Byron [Katapaytuk] and Ryan [Wildman] were circling the puck down low as I was coming onto the ice, and Byron fed it to me in front of the net and I put it in,” Larson added.
While Strachan was very impressed by the performance of Larson in his SIJHL debut, he felt it was a combination of a number of things in the third period that kick-started the comeback.
“Other than maybe the last 15 minutes of the game, including overtime, I thought that Thunder Bay outplayed us for the most part,” Strachan remarked.
“Up until that point, things were kind of dead on the bench.
“But after the first fight of the period [between the Lakers’ Mike Jourdain and the North Stars’ Taylor Desserre], the guys started talking a little bit more,” Strachan noted.
“And after [Colton] Spicer’s fight [with Thunder Bay’s Kyle Breukelman], everything started to gradually work up to when we scored the goal that made it 3-2.
“After that, it seemed like we rolling, the atmosphere started to pick up, and the guys started to believe that we had a shot of winning this game,” Strachan added.
With overtime solving nothing, despite a number of quality scoring chances by both sides, the game would be decided in a shootout, where the score was tied at a goal apiece as the third and final shooters stepped up for each team.
Thunder Bay’s Travis Tilley had a chance to give his team the lead on his attempt, but he was turned aside by a huge pad save from Lakers’ goalie Tyler Ampe, which gave the young Larson a chance to lead his team to victory.
And the Soo Greyhounds’ draft pick would make no mistake—putting a backhander past North Stars’ netminder Mikkel Bilodeau to give his team their first victory of the young season.
“Ampe made that big save and Wayne just gave me the nod to go out there,” Larson recalled.
“The fans were just going nuts at that point, and I was just smiling the whole time I was coming down the ice,” he added.
“It was awesome to score that goal and give us the win.”
Blake Boaz scored the other goal for the Lakers in regulation time while Breukelman (with two) and Devon Fullum were all the offence the North Starts could muster.
Despite watching his team give up a two-goal lead in the late stages, North Stars head coach Todd Howarth still was very pleased with how his team stacked up against the Lakers.
“We’ve got the youngest team in the league and I’m excited about what we’ve got going on here,” Howarth said.
“For 40 minutes I thought we dominated them and in the third period we did okay.
“We just showed our youth at time, but that sort of thing will happen,” he reasoned.
“Fort was a team coming into the season that beat everyone pretty handily during the exhibition schedule, but I think they found out tonight [Friday] that we are going to be a hard team to play with,” Howarth stressed.
After hitting the road to take on the Dryden Ice Dogs last night (the outcome wasn’t available by press time), the Lakers will return to the friendly confines of the Ice For Kids Arena this Friday (Sept. 23) for a 7:30 p.m. clash against the defending SIJHL champion Wisconsin Wilderness.
Following that tilt, the Lakers will hit the road again for a quick two-game trip against the Wilderness and Duluth Clydesdales on Saturday and Sunday evenings.
“We know what to expect from Wisconsin as we’ve seen them in the pre-season,” Strachan said. “If we can play to our potential, like we did in our previous meetings against them, we should be fine.
“But we just need to do that for a full 60 minutes,” he stressed.
“As for Duluth, I don’t know a whole lot about their team as of yet but just from hearing things and seeing some of the personnel that they have on board, they are going to be fast and skilled,” Strachan added.
“Every team in the league is going to be gunning to make it to Thunder Bay in April, and I think it’s going to be a tough season for everybody if the competition stays like it is right now,” Strachan warned.
