Lucas Punkari
The red-hot Fort Frances Lakers extended their winning streak to seven after routing the Iron Range Ironheads 12-1 here Friday before beating the visiting Thunder Bay North Stars 3-1 the following night.
“The guys are all happy right now and there is a good atmosphere in the dressing room right now, which is great to be a part of,” enthused forward Jordan Christianson.
“I think the biggest thing for us right now is the work ethic that everyone is bringing,” echoed teammate Byron Katapaytuk.
“Everyone is contributing, which is helping us out a lot, and hopefully we can keep it going for the next two months,” he stressed.
Katapaytuk netted the game-winning goal past Marc Nother with 1:56 to go Saturday night after getting the puck in the slot from Christianson.
“That was just the luckiest thing ever,” Christianson smiled.
“One of their players [Sam Dubinsky] laid down and took away my lane to [Ryan] Wildman as I tried to feed it over to him, and it ended up hitting a stick and Byron was right there to get the puck,” he recalled.
“The puck just ended up on my stick somehow, and I saw the that low blocker side was open and I just went and took the shot,” Katapaytuk said.
Christianson opened the scoring in the second period while Jaret Leclair added an empty-netter with 12 seconds left.
On Friday night, Lakers’ forward Merritt Rysavy led the charge against the expansion Ironheads with a goal and three assists.
“I guess you could say it was a mix of feeling good out there, having a little bit of luck, and some great linemates [Blake Boaz and Colton Spicer] to work with,” Rysavy noted.
“It was just a lot of hard work and being in the right place in the right time in those situations, I guess,” he reasoned.
Katapaytuk also had a strong showing Friday night, notching his third hat trick of the season, while Boaz and Wildman had three-point outings of their own with a goal and two assists each.
Spicer, Steve Terry, Bryan Broders, Adam Wensley, Davis Smith, and Jordan Larson also scored.
The Lakers (26-8-4) now have 56 points on the season, leaving them seven behind the league-leading Wisconsin Wilderness.
The red-and-white now hit the road for their next six games, starting with a showdown with the defending SIJHL champion Wilderness on Saturday night in Spooner.
“That will be a four-point game as they have games in hand on us in the standings,” noted Lakers’ head coach and general manager Wayne Strachan.
“They are a team that has won their last 14 games, and we have won our last seven, so it’s going to be a perfect match-up between the top two teams in the league,” he added.
“We just have go in and play our game there, and that will give us an opportunity to be the first team to knock them off down there this year, which would be a huge confidence boost for us.”
In the meantime, Strachan is looking to bolster his roster for the stretch run as the trade deadline for Junior ‘A’ teams is tomorrow night.
The Lakers made one change Friday, trading defenceman Marty McFadden to the Waywayseecappo Wolverines of the MJHL for future considerations.
McFadden, a 19-year-old from Carman, Man., was in his second season with the Lakers, recording five goals and 11 assists.
