Staff
So much for tying regular-season history.
The Fort Frances Lakers’ quest to match their club record for victories last season is over following a 6-3 loss to the host Dryden GM Ice Dogs last night.
Fort Frances (37-10-0-1) already has clinched first place in the SIJHL, but needed to win all of its last nine games to equal its mark of 46 wins from a season ago.
But the Ice Dogs (25-21-5) had other ideas as they snapped the Lakers’ five-game winning streak and broke their own four-game skid.
With the win, Dryden also moved past the Thunder Bay North Stars (25-22-0-4) for third place.
Dylan Cusmano scored a hat trick over the first and second periods to put Dryden up 3-0.
The teams then combined for five goals over the final five minutes of the second.
A.J. Kapcheck got the Lakers on the board with a power-play marker—only to have SIJHL scoring leader Cole Golka restore the Ice Dogs’ three-goal lead just over a minute later.
Fort Frances then pulled to within 4-3 on goals 1:25 apart by Mason Meyer and Dylan Kooner.
But Derek McPhail’s power-play goal just four seconds before intermission stifled the visitors’ momentum.
Jonathan Philley netted the lone tally of the third for the Ice Dogs, who improved to 4-8-0-1 against the Lakers this season.
Nathan Park had his worst outing in a Lakers’ uniform, allowing six goals on 33 shots.
Injured forwards Matt Vela, Nolan Ross, and Donovan Cousineau all sat out last night’s game.
As such, former Muskie David Pryde got into his third-straight SIJHL game since being recalled last week as an affiliate player from the Kenora Thistles Midget ‘AAA’ team.
The Lakers next welcome the second-place Minnesota Iron Rangers (26-17-6) to the Ice For Kids Arena tonight, with a special start time of 7:15 p.m.
