Lucas Punkari
Closing out their road schedule with a 3-1 win Monday night over the Dryden Ice Dogs, the Fort Frances Lakers will look to put the wraps on a successful regular season in their final two home games this week.
The red-and-white will host the Sioux Lookout Flyers tomorrow (Feb. 23) at 7:30 p.m. at the Ice For Kids Arena, then meet the Thunder Bay North Stars on Saturday night.
That will lead into their 1 vs. 2 playoff showdown with the Wisconsin Wilderness that begins March 2 in Spooner.
“We’re just looking to maintain our work ethic, play with intensity, and get into playoff mode in our last two games here,” said Lakers’ head coach and general manager Wayne Strachan.
“We have accomplished some very good things here this regular season, and we are looking forward to achieving more once the playoffs start.
“With our win over Dryden on Monday, we have become the winningest Fort Frances-based team in a single season with 35 wins, and we will also set a new franchise best point total, as well,” noted Strachan.
“We have improved from last year, and hopefully what we have learned and gained in experience will carry over into helping us win in the playoffs,” he added.
The Lakers may have won Monday night to finish the season with an 18-8-2 record away from home, but the trip to Dryden was not without its issues.
“It was a long day, to say the least, as we had a bus mishap which forced us to scramble, and we need to thank North Air and the Pocock family for helping us out on short notice and getting us vans to head up to Dryden,” Strachan remarked.
“We ended up pulling in at 6:30 p.m., about an hour before game time, so we had to hurry to get ready.
“Once we got going, I thought we had a pretty good first period where we were firing many shots on net, and we ended up taking the lead late in the period on a power-play goal by Blake Boaz,” he recalled.
“Our second period was sloppy and Dryden had many chances to tie it up, but [goalie] Tanner [Hamilton] stood tall for us and he made three big saves.
“The third period was kind of back-and-forth, with us pulling out a much-needed win against Dryden on their own ice,” Strachan added.
“And while it might not of been our best performance, we will take it.”
Hamilton’s performance between the pipes was one of the reasons the Lakers were able to get the win, making 34 saves en route to capturing his 12th win of the season.
Offensively, Jordan Christianson led the way with a goal and an assist, with Ryan Wildman adding an empty-net goal to round out the scoring.
Byron Katapaytuk collected an assist on Wildman’s marker, which put the 20-year-old forward back into the lead in the SIJHL’s scoring race.
Heading into tomorrow night’s game here, Katapaytuk leads Sioux Lookout Flyers’ forward Anthony Wolfe by a single point (80-79).
Monday’s triumph also was a big bounce-back victory for the Lakers, who fell to the defending champion Wilderness on Friday night by a score of 3-2 in overtime, with Wisconsin’s Steve Hughes netting the game-winning goal on the power play less than a minute into the extra frame.
“I thought for the most part that we played a strong game on Friday night,” Strachan said.
“I question the shots on goal [43-23 in favour of the Wilderness] that it says in the game stats, but territory-wise it was a good battle between the two teams.
“We had two leads during the game, but we ended up making a bad turnover on the power play for them to tie it up in third period, and then there was a questionable tripping call [on Katapaytuk] late in the game which led to their game-winning goal in overtime.
“All in all, I believe we proved that we can play with them from our last two outcomes [including a 5-0 win here on Feb. 11],” Strachan added. “And in my opinion, we deserved to win the hockey game on Friday.
“Those are things that we will remember when we go back down there in less than two weeks for the 1 vs. 2 showdown,” he reasoned.
Christianson led the Lakers with a pair of goals in regulation time, with Hamilton and Tyler Ampe combining to make 40 saves in the loss.
Ampe got the start in goal Friday night, but was ejected from the game near the halfway point when he was given an attempt-to-injure match penalty, which led to Hamilton coming into the contest in a relief role.
“Along with Monday’s game in Dryden, Tyler is suspended for the last two games of the regular season, as well, as a result of what happened against Wisconsin,” Strachan noted.
“I was originally going to give Tanner the nod for the game in Dryden, along with Thursday’s game, and have Tyler finish the season against the North Stars,” he explained.
“But as it turns out, Tanner will be our goaltender until the first round.
“He has worked hard and proven he can be solid out there, and he’s a guy we can count on in a relief role,” Strachan added.
Prior to Friday’s loss to the Wilderness, the Lakers put forth a dominating performance last Thursday night in Chisholm, Mn. as they throttled the Iron Range Ironheads 10-3.
Leading the way was the line of Henry Gutierrez, Jaret Leclair, and Davis Smith, who combined for 16 points.
Gutierrez scored four times and set up a pair of goals, with Leclair collecting a hat trick and a pair of assists. Smith, meanwhile, set up five of his team’s markers.
“We played a fairly good game against Iron Range, with Henry’s line having a successful night as a result of moving the puck well and capitalizing on their chances,” Strachan said.
“Byron’s line had many chances in the game but they were quite snake-bitten, and Jordan Larson’s line scored two nice goals in the first period, with our defence also playing well,” he added.
Merritt Rysavy opened the scoring with a pair of first-period goals, with Katapaytuk also hitting the twine.
Off of the ice this week, Larson was named the SIJHL’s rookie-of-the-year Monday.
The 16-year-old Fort Frances native currently leads all rookies in scoring with 68 points, which puts him in fifth overall in the league.
Larson is the second Laker to receive the accolade, with goalie Jameson Shortreed taking the honour in 2010.
Mitch Cain (2008) and Kevin Webb (2002) won the award with the now defunct Fort Frances Jr. Sabres and Borderland Thunder franchises, respectively.
