Joey Payeur
The Fort Frances Lakers walked into Dryden on Monday thinking they were facing a pack of pitiful puppies.
Instead, they found a kennel of Dryden GM Ice Dogs, who ignored their wounds and tore a strip off the three-time defending SIJHL champs in an opening period that left Lakers’ head coach/general manager Wayne Strachan foaming at the mouth.
Down four regulars due to league-issued suspensions, the Ice Dogs, ranked ninth nationally, struck for three goals in the first frame in earning a 3-1 win.
“From my standpoint, it is sad on our part,” said Strachan, who hasn’t had to deal with this much adversity since before the team began its run of three-straight league titles.
“You can’t play soft hockey and expect to have any success,” he fumed.
“We disrespected our opponent,” Strachan added. “We thought since they were shorthanded it would be easy and, as a result, we forgot to show up for the first period.
“The Ice Dogs are the best team in the league for these reasons: they work hard no matter who their opponent is, their leaders or best players are leading the way, and they have that winning feeling and want more,” he noted.
“Sounds like the Lakers’ teams of the past few years and it’s the biggest reason we do not have success consistently this year.”
Braeden Allkins, who leads the SIJHL scoring race with 67 points, had a hand in all three first-period goals as Dryden (32-4-4-0) outshot Fort Frances (18-16-2-3) by a 16-6 margin.
He opened the scoring at 3:39 before Jack Bernie replied on the power play at 6:41 to bring the Lakers even, with Jared Virtanen posting his league-best 41st assist on the play.
But Allkins tallied again at 13:52 mere seconds after Julian Uhryniuk went to the box for tripping.
With the Lakers back on their heels, Allkins and Nic Noseworthy set up Kristopher Hamlin just 13 seconds later for the game’s final goal.
Ice Dogs’ goalie Patrick Zubick held the Lakers at bay the rest of the way, ending up with 29 saves to match the number put up by Brandon Bodnar.
“Zubick did his job and what every No. 1 goalie does–shut the door and help his team win games,” said Strachan.
“We had our chances [but] he was focused, square, and wasn’t letting their lead slip away.”
It was the Lakers’ second-straight loss after they gave up three unanswered goals in the third period en route to 5-2 setback against the host Thief River Falls Norskies on Saturday night.
Matt Tustin tied the game at 2-2 at 6:08 of the third with the man advantage.
But instead of gaining momentum from the equalizer, the Lakers fell asleep on the following shift and allowed Keaton Huot to net the go-ahead goal just 17 seconds later.
“It was ultimately the turning point of the game,” acknowledged Strachan.
“When you tie it and hope things are leaning to your side, then give up a go-ahead goal some 17 seconds later, it’s demoralizing for a team.
“What hurts even more is the goal should not have counted as a Norskies’ player was in our crease impeding the movement of [goalie Jessie] Heisz from being able to move back into position,” he added.
“It’s easy to see on video.
“Nevertheless, we had an important shift after tying the game and we have a veteran line on the ice who gives up the opportunity due to circling away from pucks and not picking up late coverage coming into our zone,” Strachan said.
“We need our leaders to lead the way and this is unacceptable play at this level.”
Dalton Johnson’s second of the game–a short-handed tally–put the Norskies firmly in control at 12:34.
Dylan Dix added an empty-netter with 31 seconds left to ice the victory.
Parker Simonson and Johnson scored 1:36 apart in the second period to erase Maverick Lynes’ opening goal of the game at 12:08 of the first.
Ryan Buttazzoni had 23 saves for the third-place Norskies (20-15-2-3), who are three points ahead of the English River Miners (19-17-1-3) and four up on the Lakers.
The Lakers, which had won four-straight games and seven of their previous eight before the two losses, went just 1-for-6 against the Norskies on the power play and followed that up with a mere 1-for-4 effort versus Dryden.
“[Thief River Falls] have played us differently the last two games and we have made adjustments to counteract their play,” noted Strachan.
“However, you have to actually try the counteractions and we didn’t,” he remarked. “We were predictable and when we had chances to get the puck to the net, we had no traffic at the net.
“That’s the biggest reasons our power-play struggles.”
Forward Jaden Gustafson suffered an upper-body injury against Thief River Falls and is expected to be out one-two weeks.
The Lakers next head to Thunder Bay tonight to face the second-place North Stars (24-13-3), who have lost four-straight and eight of their last 10.
Then they’ll host English River on Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the Ice For Kids Arena in the opener of a home-and-home series that wraps up there Saturday night.
