Staff
Five months later and Mason Meyer still is causing the Minnesota Iron Rangers no end of grief.
Meyer buried a feed from Alex Rezansoff with 58 seconds left in regulation time to give the Fort Frances Lakers a 4-3 win in SIJHL action yesterday in Hoyt Lakes.
It was Meyer who scored the controversial game-winning goal in the third period of Game 7 of the SIJHL final back in April that gave the Lakers their first Bill Salonen Cup.
This time, he beat Iron Rangers’ goalie Chase Gorman for his third goal in two games to give the Lakers the victory in their first road game of the season.
It also meant Fort Frances is off to a 2-0 start to the regular season after beating the Thunder Bay North Stars 5-3 here Friday night.
Miles Nolan, Jake Holland, and Carter Chorney also scored yesterday for the Lakers, whose power play went 3-for-5 and is starting the season like last year on fire in going 7-for-12 over the weekend (58 percent).
Drew Millis, Hunter Routheau (power play), and A.J. Rupert replied for Minnesota.
The Iron Rangers outshot the Lakers 42-30 but Devin Tappenden came up big with 39 saves to earn the win.
On Friday night, the Lakers unveiled their SIJHL and Hockey Northwestern Ontario branch championship banners, then played a sluggish first period to trail 1-0 at intermission on a goal by Matthias Gardiman.
But everything fell into place in the second as Nolan and Colton Spicer notched power-play goals 1:34 apart before Meyer added an even-strength tally at 10:54 to make it 3-1.
Brandon Wolframe’s man-advantage tally cut the lead to one, but Dylan Kooner zipped home a loose puck one second into another Lakers’ power play to restore the two-goal lead at 18:58.
Wolframe’s second man-advantage goal at 2:56 of the third pulled Thunder Bay closer once more.
But penalty trouble again cost the North Stars as Meyer drilled a shot under the crossbar at 14:02 on a two-man advantage for the insurance goal.
Tappenden kicked out 29 shots while the SIJHL’s reigning top goalie award winner, Eric Mann, managed 29 saves for the North Stars, who may have been rusty having oddly played no pre-season games while the Lakers had five under their belts.
Defenceman Gordon Campbell played more than 25 minutes in making his Lakers’ debut after being signed on the weekend.
Campbell, a 19-year-old Vancouver native, spent the last two-plus seasons with the Grandview Steelers (Pacific Junior Hockey League).
He had five points in 36 games last season with the Steelers, along with 132 penalty minutes.
The Lakers also dealt for forward Wyatt Cota from the Kingston Voyageurs (OJHL) for a player development fee.
Cota still was waiting for his paperwork to be approved and was unable to join the team yesterday.
The 19-year-old from Kingston had 16 points in 51 games with his hometown Voyageurs last season after racking up 100 points in 45 games with the Gananoque Islanders (Eastern Ontario Junior Hockey League).
The Lakers next visit the Dryden GM Ice Dogs this Wednesday before facing the North Stars again in their next home game Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the Ice For Kids Arena.
