Joey Payeur
An alleged racial slur marred the Fort Frances Lakers’ 6-2 win over the visiting Minnesota Iron Rangers on Saturday night.
With just over four minutes to go, Minnesota forward Alex Arnold was jousting verbally with downed Lakers’ blueliner Roshen Jaswal, who was about to receive a penalty for holding the stick.
“I guess he [Arnold] used a racial slur and that’s what set Jaswal off,” said Lakers’ head coach and general manager Wayne Strachan.
Iron Rangers’ head coach Chris Walby in an email to the Times on Tuesday night said that Arnold denied the allegation.
When contacted about the incident Monday, Walby said it was the first he had heard about it.
“I don’t know anything about it and I don’t condone it, either,” he stressed.
Jaswal, who is of East Indian descent, responded by springing to his feet and delivering a two-handed chop to Arnold’s shin pad.
He then threw off his gloves in an attempt to fight the Rangers’ forward, which was interrupted by the linesman on hand.
Jaswal ended up receiving minors for holding the stick and slashing, as well as a 10-minute misconduct, while Arnold also received a misconduct.
Lakers’ forward Jaden Gustafson was even more outraged than his teammate.
He voiced his displeasure so vehemently that he was handed two 10-minute misconducts and a game misconduct.
Because the latter came in the final 10 minutes of the third period, it means an automatic one-game suspension for Gustafson.
“The official wasn’t close enough to hear it [the slur],” Jaswal noted.
“I don’t want to repeat it but even last year, Minnesota was saying stupid stuff like that,” he claimed.
Dylan Robertson scored twice and added an assist to pace the Lakers to their sixth-straight win in the final game for both teams before the holiday break.
The game took place at the ’52 Canadians Arena because the Ice For Kids Arena—the Lakers’ normal home venue—was impacted due to a broken gasket on one of the Memorial Sports Centre’s two ice compressors.
That had the ice temperature in the IFK up to around minus-eight C when usually it’s close to minus-13.
While the rink was not unplayable, Lakers’ head coach and general manager Wayne Strachan accepted the Community Services division’s offer to shift the game to the ’52 Canadians Arena and watched his team (23-3-0-1) score three times in each of the last two periods to beat the Rangers for the eighth time in nine meetings this season.
“Since we had our extended break in November, I think we’ve only lost one game, so we’re going into the [holiday] break on a high note,” said Strachan.
“It’ll be good for the players to get home and see family and friends, and it’ll be a good break mental-wise for them,” he added.
Following a scoreless first period, Dylan Kooner, A.J. Rupert, and Robertson beat Rangers’ goalie Kyle Carignan to make it 3-0 after 40 minutes.
Minnesota, playing its third game in three days against a Lakers’ team that hadn’t played in six days, came out blazing early in the third to pull within one on goals 1:09 apart by Dalton Johnson and former Laker John Cuni (power play).
But Nick Minerva, the SIJHL’s top-scoring defenceman, made his presence felt soon after.
Minerva first banged home a rebound of Cole Tymkin’s shot at 6:45.
Then he spotted Andrew Willner alone at the side of the net and sizzled a pass cross-ice, which Willner one-timed over a sprawled Carignan for a 5-2 lead.
Robertson, who also assisted on Willner’s goal, then moved back into sole possession of the SIJHL scoring lead with 37 points (one ahead of Minerva) by deftly backhanding the puck in full stride over Carignan’s attempted poke check with 1:24 to go.
Brandon Bodnar made 20 saves and has won all three of his starts this month, giving up only four goals in all.
The Lakers (23-3-0-1) hold a five-point lead atop the SIJHL standings over the second-place Dryden GM Ice Dogs (19-6-2-2), and also hold two games in hand.
Fort Frances also remained at No. 5 in the CJHL Poinstreak top 20 weekly rankings, with the Trenton Golden Hawks (OJHL) holding onto top spot.
In related news, with Lakers’ defenceman Ryan Gazich sidelined due to a concussion, and fellow blueliner Dustin Deugau still out with a shoulder ailment, the Lakers called up Fort Frances Midget ‘AA’ Canadians’ defenceman Izzy Smith to make his Junior ‘A’ debut Saturday night.
Forward Carter Chorney (lower-body injury) also missed the game.
But all three injured players likely will be back in the lineup in the Lakers’ first game after the holiday break when the English River Miners visit here Jan. 2.
