Joey Payeur
The Fort Frances Lakers lost the lead, lost half their defence corps, and lost their composure.
They have until tonight to figure out how to avoid losing out on the chance to play tomorrow.
A four-goal third period lifted the Soo Thunderbirds to a 6-3 victory over the Lakers in Dudley Hewitt Cup action last night in front of what became, by game’s end, the quietest group of 1,207 people one could ever imagine.
“It was definitely a tough one for us,” said Lakers’ head coach and general manager Wayne Strachan, whose team was outshot 48-20.
The Lakers also had defencemen Cody Antonini, Sam Schultz, and Gordon Campbell all go down with lower-body injuries.
“We had a good start and then we seemed to kind of fall apart,” Strachan added.
“We didn’t stick to our game plan.”
Schultz came back to play in the third but Antonini and Campbell did not.
Both were to have been re-evaluated today, with their status for tonight’s game against the Dryden Ice Dogs unknown as of press time.
Soo head coach Jordan Smith was happy with the outcome.
“It was a great game both ways that could have went either way,” he noted.
“The power-play was definitely the difference for us,” he added.
“It tied the game for us in the first [period] and essentially put the game away for us in the third.”
Thunderbirds’ defenceman Brandon Grandinetti said his team felt the momentum swung their way when Matt Caruso tied the game at 2-2 with just under a minute left in the second period.
“Coach told us to just keep doing what we were doing,” said Grandinetti.
“We could tell in the third that [the Lakers] were getting hesitant.”
The Lakers are now 1-1 after a 2-1 overtime win Tuesday night against the Toronto Patriots.
But the two-time SIJHL champs are at risk of not moving into the playoff round featuring the top three squads in the four-team field.
Toronto blanked the Dryden GM Ice Dogs 6-0 earlier yesterday to get three points for a regulation win—compared to the two the Lakers got for their overtime triumph.
The Thunderbirds (2-0) and the Patriots (1-0-1) played today at 2 p.m. to decide who gets first place and a bye to Saturday night’s final.
Whoever loses will be bound for tomorrow’s night’s semi-final against either the Lakers or the Ice Dogs (0-2), who square off tonight at 7:30 p.m.
A win in regulation or overtime, or even a loss in an extra period, would be enough to propel the Lakers into the semi-final.
But a Dryden victory in regulation would send the Ice Dogs into the playoff round.
“It’s a big rivalry,” Strachan said about the Lakers’ meeting the Ice Dogs, whom the Fort vanquished in six games in a hard-fought SIJHL final two weeks ago.
“I don’t expect anything less that what we saw from them in the championship round,” he added.
“It’s going to be a barnburner.”
“We have to put in a full 60 minutes against Dryden,” stressed defenceman Robbie Bonthron, who almost certainly will be back at his normal blueline spot after having been moved up to forward due to the absence of Dylan Kooner and Carter Chorney.
Both missed Tuesday’s opener and likely won’t be back for the rest of the tournament.
“It helps that we know Dryden well but we still have to step up and work hard,” Bonthron warned.
Dylan Robertson opened the scoring last night at 1:24 of the first period with an electric snapshot that beat Soo goalie Mario Culina.
The Thunderbirds tied it with their first of three power-play goals on Matt Pinder’s one-timer past Nathan Park.
Bowen Alcock put the Lakers back in front at 8:29 of the second—converting a cross-ice feed from Roshen Jaswal after Miles Nolan won a race to a loose puck inside the Soo blueline.
The Lakers almost escaped the frame with the lead but A.J. Kapcheck’s ill-advised clearing attempt up the middle was intercepted by Caruso.
He took two strides and hammered a shot behind Park with 59.2 seconds before intermission to tie the contest.
Early in the third, Alcock took a roughing penalty while racing for the puck in the Thunderbirds’ end that proved costly.
Brett Jeffries put home a no-look feed from Boris Katchouk at the side of the net to make it 3-2 just 1:05 into the frame.
Katchouk then slid a centering pass from Devin Shell underneath Park at 3:45.
The Lakers played with little spirit after that, with Anthony Miller chasing Park (37 saves) from the net with a top-shelf rocket at 9:36.
Pierce Dushenko (five saves) came on in relief and gave up Matt Busby’s bullet from the right circle at 11:44 to boost the lead to 6-2.
Mason Meyer’s power-play goal against Culina (17 stops) with 2:27 left to close the scoring.
