Joey Payeur
The Fort Frances Lakers left the ice Tuesday night serenading their guests with the visitors’ own song of celebration.
It was sweet music to the ears of the home crowd.
Lucas DeBenedet scored the only goal in the shootout as the Lakers (5-1-0-1) earned their fourth-straight win with a 3-2 victory over the Thunder Bay North Stars (4-1).
The Stars, who had rallied from a 3-0 deficit to beat Fort Frances 4-3 in the season-opener here back on Sept. 20, punctuated each of their goals with some over-the-top joyful howls from their players on the ice and on their bench.
But when all was said and done, it was the sound of the Lakers’ howling ringing in Thunder Bay’s ears as it headed home with its first loss of the season.
“Losing that [season-opener] was pretty heart-breaking,” said DeBenedet, the SIJHL’s scoring leader with 16 points, who made good on the Lakers’ first shootout opportunity against Stars’ goalie Eric Mann after Matthias Gardiman lost the puck off his stick on the visitor’s opening shot.
“We noticed [Mann] dropped his glove hand when you come in on him, so I just went top shelf,” DeBenedet explained.
Ryan Ferguson, who made 17 saves in regulation and overtime for the Lakers, then made his biggest stop of the night when he slammed the door on Cary Brown, who tried to beat him five-hole.
Kevin Kurm was stopped by Mann on the Lakers’ second try to momentarily keep the Stars alive.
But Brandon Wolframe’s last-ditch effort saw him backhand the puck wide of the Lakers’ net, causing Ferguson to deliver an emphatic fist pump with the two points assured.
“We started off a little tentative, not as aggressive as we have been the last few games,” noted Lakers’ head coach and general manager Wayne Strachan.
“But we regrouped and has a strong second,” he added.
“Obviously, Lucas has had the hot hand early in the season and he scored a nice goal to win it.”
With the win, Fort Frances moved three points up on third-place Thunder Bay for top spot in the SIJHL, with the Dryden Ice Dogs (5-3) now in second—one point back of the Lakers.
The Stars scored the only goal of the first at 18:07 when a rebound of Brown’s shot landed on the stick of Gardiman, who fired it past Ferguson.
Near the eight-minute mark of the second, the Lakers received a two-man advantage for 1:02 but failed to produce with a power-play unit that ranked tops in the league entering the game (38.6 percent).
Surprisingly, Fort Frances seemed to find another gear after letting the golden opportunity slip away—or maybe not so surprisingly.
“Coach had a few choice words for us after that,” grinned DeBenedet.
“That got us going.”
Hunter Leishman tallied for the second time in two games, and his second of the season at 10:53 started with a beautiful move to get the puck around a Stars’ defender before whistling the puck past Mann (40 saves).
Torrin Grange then gave the Fort its first lead of the night with his second of the year at 15:07.
Grange stole the puck just inside the Thunder Bay blueline, then worked a quick give-and-go with Aaron Wesley-Chisel before wiring a shot just under the crossbar to the blocker side of Mann.
Gardiman pulled the Stars even 1:52 into the third with his second of the game after the Lakers were unable to clear the zone.
Strachan experimented with some different line combinations in the third, but to no avail.
“I was trying to mix up the lines to generate some offence,” he explained.
“We definitely created some offence out of it but we just couldn’t score.”
Fort Frances played without defencemen Kyle Lipinski (hip) and Cody Wickstrom (illness), as well as goalie Jordan Cartney (lower-body injury).
“Kyle has made some progress, though he won’t play Friday but possibly Saturday,” noted Strachan.
“Jordan’s back practising, but he’s only had one high-speed practice so far since being back,” Strachan added.
“We’ll see in the next few days if he’s ready to go.
“Cody is getting better, but we’re still uncertain as to when he’ll be back,” said Strachan.
The Lakers head to Ear Falls for the first time to battle the expansion English River Miners (0-4-0-1) on Friday, with the last-place Miners looking to improve on the 12-2 shellacking they received here Sept. 21.
Then on Saturday night, the fifth-place Wisconsin Wilderness (1-3) will visit for the teams’ first meeting this season.
