Joey Payeur
The Toronto Patriots ended the Fort Frances Lakers’ season last year.
It’s time for the Lakers to return the favour—if they can scrounge together enough healthy bodies to do so.
Lucas DeBenedet scored twice, and Pierce Dushenko made 20 saves in relief of injured starter Nathan Park, as the Lakers beat the Dryden GM Ice Dogs 5-3 last night in the round-robin finale of the Dudley Hewitt Cup here.
With the win, the Lakers (2-1) wound up finishing third and will take on second-place Toronto (2-0-1) tonight in a rematch of last year’s semi-final in Wellington, which Toronto (known then as the Lakeshore Patriots) won 6-0 en route to the title.
“We’ve got to play good defensively,” stressed DeBenedet, whose second goal of the game last night during a two-man advantage only 33 seconds into the third gave the Lakers a 4-2 lead.
“We were not really good in the first period last year against them,” he added, referring to the Lakers falling behind 4-0.
“But we’ll be ready this time.”
The Lakers edged Toronto 2-1 in overtime on Tuesday night to open their tournament, then lost 6-3 to the Soo Thunderbirds on Wednesday.
That put them in a virtual “must-win” situation last night against Dryden (0-3), who burst out of the gate with Dylan Cusmano’s shot from the slot after a Lakers’ turnover in their own zone.
DeBenedet steadied the ship by converting Bryson Jasper’s redirection of Wyatt Cota’s pass across during a power-play at 4:18.
Robbie Bonthron, who returned to his normal spot on defence last night with forward Carter Chorney back after missing five games, continued his strong post-season effort by jumping on a loose puck and driving a 15-footer past Ice Dogs’ goalie Tate Sproxton to put the Fort up 2-1.
Jasper then added to the lead when he knocked home a rebound of Mason Meyer’s shot from the left corner.
Only 1:50 later, the game turned nasty—and potentially devastating for the home team.
A battle in front of Park ended with the goalie being knocked down by Dryden’s Kent Walchuk.
Park was down for a minute and then got up, trying to skate off the pain while favouring his right leg.
But 28 seconds later, the SIJHL’s top goalie and playoff MVP this season fell to his knees again with nobody around him—forcing a stoppage in play and bringing on Dushenko.
“I didn’t want to be the guy to let our team down,” said Dushenko.
“Tonight I was playing for [Park].”
Today’s plan for Park was a noon-hour physiotherapy session to determine whether he is able to suit up tonight.
The Lakers also lost forward Colton Spicer, who was spotted wearing a sling following a first-period injury that puts his status for tonight’s game in serious doubt.
The squad already is without defenceman Cody Antonini, who was hurt in the Soo game, and forward Donovan Cousineau.
Dryden pulled closer on Derek McPhail’s marker at 17:02 of the second to make it 3-2 and set up a nervous third period for the throng of 1,245 in attendance.
But special teams proved extra special for the Lakers in the third.
With former Laker Ben Smaha already in the box, SIJHL regular-season MVP Cole Golka wound up tripping Lakers’ blueliner Nick Minerva while trying to strip him of the puck.
DeBenedet wasted little time taking advantage—rocketing a shot from the left circle to the top corner past Sproxton.
“We had a little momentum entering the third and then, bang, they score a goal and it deflates it,” said Ice Dogs’ assistant coach Darren Oliphant.
Cota and Golka later traded goals to close out the scoring.
Dryden, which finished winless at 0-3, needed to beat the Lakers in regulation time to advance to tonight’s semi-final.
The Thunderbirds finished in first place—earning a bye to tomorrow final at 7:30 p.m.—despite falling 4-3 in a shootout earlier yesterday to the Patriots.
