Staff
The Thunder Bay North Stars spotted their guests a big lead in last night’s Game 3 and couldn’t come back.
Now they have done the same with the SIJHL best-of-seven semifinal and, barring the start of a monumental turnaround tonight, will wind up with an identical result.
The Fort Frances Lakers took a 3-0 lead in their series with a 5-4 victory last night in Thunder Bay to move within one win of returning to the Bill Salonen Cup final for the fourth consecutive season.
That could happen as early as tonight, with Game 4 set to take place in Thunder Bay.
Fort Frances raced to a 4-0 lead by 5:52 of the second on goals by Nick Minerva, Mason Meyer, Nolan Ross and Wyatt Cota (power-play), ending Thunder Bay goalie Eric Mann’s evening at that point after Mann gave up four goals on only 16 shots.
Nathaniel Dupuis took over, making 18 stops the rest of the way, and the change sparked the Stars.
Former Laker Aaron Wesley-Chisel put the home team on the board 1:09 later and Bradley Belisle added a man-advantage marker at 14:49 to turn a sure thing into a suspenseful encounter.
Bowen Alcock seemed to restore calm on the Lakers’ bench with his tally at 2:54 of the third to make it 5-2.
But only 55 seconds later, Nicholas Nigro responded for Thunder Bay and Matthias Gardiman cut the deficit to one at 9:58.
The Stars kept coming on a night where they outshot Fort Frances 47-35, but Nathan Park (43 saves) held Thunder Bay off to preserve the win.
It was the same lineup as in Game 2 for the Lakers, with forwards Lucas DeBenedet (leg) and Donovan Cousineau (lower-body) out due to injury, while defenceman Roshen Jaswal was a healthy scratch for the second straight contest after a late-game meltdown in Game 1.
If necessary, Game 5 will be on Thursday at the Ice for Kids Arena at 7:30 p.m.
