Lucas Punkari
After seeing their four-game winning streak snapped Wednesday night in Sioux Lookout, the Fort Frances Lakers bounced back in a huge way here Friday with a 5-0 victory over the Duluth Clydesdales.
The win was highlighted by the performance of Lakers’ goalie Tyler Ampe, who turned aside all 39 shots he faced to earn his first shutout of the season—and only the second by any netminder in the SIJHL this year.
Kim Wildhaber of the Dryden Ice Dogs has the other win—a 13-0 whitewash of the Iron Range Ironheads on Oct. 9.
“It feels pretty good,” enthused Ampe, who had two shutouts last season.
“I have to thank a couple of my defenders for helping me out there, especially Marty [McFadden] in the first period, and this kind of gets the burden off of my shoulder to try and get a shutout this season,” he noted.
“Now that I have that out of the way, I can just focus more on playing my game from here on in,” Ampe added.
Meanwhile, Fort Frances native Jordan Larson continued his scoring ways. The first-year forward netted a pair of goals to extend his league-leading point total to 23, with linemate Davis Smith assisting on both markers.
Defenceman Jon Carlson also registered a pair of points Friday night (a goal and an assist), with Ryan Wildman and Mike Riffel also hitting the twine.
With the victory, the Lakers improved to 8-2-1 to currently sit in second place in the SIJHL standings with 17 points, just one back of the defending league champion Wisconsin Wilderness.
Next up for the Lakers is a home-and-home series with the Ice Dogs, which opens tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. at the Ice For Kids Arena.
Both teams then will clash again following night in Dryden.
