Staff
Wayne Strachan has been trying all season to get his team to come out for the first period ready to play.
His pleas most definitely were answered over the weekend.
The Fort Frances Lakers put a smile on the face of their head coach/GM on consecutive nights—scoring a combined eight goals in the first period of a pair of key road wins.
The Lakers, who only had scored 14 times in the opening frame of their first 26 games, grabbed a 3-0 lead in the first en route to a 6-2 victory Friday night over the host Dryden GM Ice Dogs.
Then on Saturday, the Lakers jumped out to a 5-0 lead before the first intermission in downing the host Thunder Bay North Stars 5-2.
Mason Meyer (power play), Wyatt Cota, Matt Vela, Josh Gouin, and Lucas DeBenedet shredded North Stars’ goalie Eric Mann during a 23-shot assault in the first period.
Thunder Bay, which now has lost three-straight, responded with 20 shots in the second.
But they were turned aside each time by Lakers’ goalie Pierce Dushenko before getting to him for a pair of late power-play tallies by Nicholas Nigro in the third.
With the win, the first-place Lakers (20-7-1) moved four points up on the second-place North Stars (17-10-3) while also holding two games in hand.
Dushenko finished with 41 saves while former English River Miners’ goalie P.D. Melgoza stopped all 15 shots he faced after relieving Mann to start the second period.
In Friday night’s game against Dryden, DeBenedet scored the first two goals for the Lakers (one with the man advantage) before Carter Chorney added another.
Anthony Filoso replied with a power-play marker in the second, but that was evened out by A.J. Kapcheck’s tally later in the period to make it 4-1.
Dylan Robertson made it 5-1 just over five minutes into the third before DeBenedet added his hat trick goal a little over four minutes later.
Cole Golka, who leads the SIJHL in goals (29) and points (48), made good on the power play for the Ice Dogs with 33 seconds left to cap the scoring.
Devin Tappenden made 30 saves to win for the sixth time in his last seven appearances.
Tate Sproxton had 21 saves for Dryden (14-13-2), which had its three-game winning streak snapped, although the Ice Dogs rebounded with an 8-4 triumph against the visiting Minnesota Iron Rangers (15-9-4) on Saturday.
The Lakers will wrap up their three-game road swing Thursday night against the last-place Miners (5-19-3).
Then they’ll host the North Stars on Saturday in their final game before the two-week holiday break.
