Lucas Punkari
After getting hammered 12-1 back on Dec. 17 in Kenora, the Fort Frances Thunderhawks were eager to take another crack at their arch-rivals Saturday night at the Ice For Kids Arena here.
And this time around, a much stronger effort by the Thunderhawks resulted in a 4-1 triumph.
“It was a good win,” Thunderhawks’ coach Gary Noga said after the game.
“We knew we had a strong team, especially with our defence, which is going to be a key for us, but we had struggled in our previous two games in getting things going up front,” he noted.
“This time around, though, we were able to get out of our zone and that made a huge difference for us.”
One of those who made an impact up front was Devlin’s Jordan Davis—netting a pair of goals thanks to some great feeds by AJ Tucker and Taylor Jorgenson.
“I’m not even sure that I know all of the guys yet,” joked Davis, who began this season playing for the University of Manitoba.
“We’re all a pretty skilled group of guys out there and we were able to mesh together nicely, which was pretty nice,” he added.
“Jordan played great for us tonight,” Noga said.
“The young guys really work out there, and we have some wily old veterans like Kevin Webb that are good complements for those guys like Davis and Jordan Sinclair, who are coming in to play at this level for the first time,” he remarked.
Mike English and Nick Bydal also scored for the Thunderhawks while Thistles’ captain Sean Hughes had the lone goal in the loss.
Between the pipes, former Muskie Cody Wood was thrown into the line of fire after only two minutes of action when starter Chris Medicine had to leave the game after pulling his groin.
“They kept telling me to get ready and that I had to stretch, but I was waiting for the coach to say, ‘Never mind, he’s good to go,’” Wood laughed.
“I just had to go in there and do what I could do, I guess,” he reasoned.
“And as soon as I went out there, I had to make a couple of big saves on a scramble in front, so that woke me up pretty quickly.”
The Thunderhawks don’t play again until March 4, when they’ll travel to Kenora for the second game in their two-game, total-goal mini-series.
The overall winner will earn the right to host the best-of-three Gary Cook Cup on March 16-18 to determine the regional champ, with that winner then going on to face the southern Ontario champ in the Renwick Cup in April for a berth at this year’s Allan Cup.
The 2012 edition of the Allan Cup will be held April 16-21 in Lloydminster, Sask.
Heading into their upcoming contest with the Thistles, Noga is hoping his team will stay in tip-top shape, which is something he felt was a big key in their win here Saturday night.
“We just need to be in the best shape that we possibly can be,” he stressed.
“We’re going to keep skating together as much as we can, as well, in the next little bit, which should help us out a lot.
“And while the lines are working well for us right now, they can still get a little bit better,” he added.
