Joey Payeur
Goals for the Fort Frances Lakers recently have been about on par with the number of days without Donald Trump making the headlines.
In other words, not that many.
The Lakers’ search for their missing offence came up empty again over the weekend, with the three-time defending SIJHL champs falling 2-1 on Friday at the Ice For Kids Arena and then 4-1 in Red Lake the following night to drop both ends of a home-and-home series with the English River Miners.
That made it three-straight losses for Fort Frances (19-18-2-3), with just two goals in those three games, and also dropped them from fourth place to fifth in the standings.
The Lakers sit three points back of the Miners (21-18-1-3), although the Lakers hold a game in hand.
“If you break it down even further, in our last six games we have only scored seven goals,” noted displeased head coach and general manager Wayne Strachan.
“One of those games is a 2-1 win.
“I believe we don’t bear down when we have opportunities and we don’t have enough traffic around the net right now,” he added.
“A third factor would be we don’t hit the net enough in prime scoring chances.
“If you look at the majority of our goals throughout the year, they are all generated around the net area because we are driving hard or have men at the net,” Strachan said.
“We simply need to get back to this and quit playing soft hockey,” he stressed.
Strachan wasn’t holding goalie Brandon Bodnar too accountable for Friday night’s loss, in which the netminder had 25 saves but a forgettable second period.
Bodnar let in Jared Janke’s bad-angle shot from the wing at 4:48, then chose not to play a puck bouncing off the end boards that went right to Matt O’Neill for a breakaway goal at 16:17 with the rest of the Lakers in the midst of a poorly-executed line change.
“Brandon was upset with himself after the game,” noted Strachan.
“In no way should anyone blame him,” he remarked. “We win and lose as a team.
“We don’t point fingers. Mistakes happen, as well as breakdowns.
“We have to pick one another up from them and keep forging ahead,” Strachan reasoned.
“We are a team that needs some urgency in our game at this time of the year.”
Dylan Kooner cut the lead in half at 14:58 of the third, but Michael Lenko finished with 35 saves to deny the Lakers the tying goal.
Brett Pickler’s first power-play goal as a Laker put the squad up 1-0 at 12:23 of the first period in Saturday night’s rematch in Red Lake.
But the Miners scored four unanswered goals after that to seal the victory.
Trevor Pereverzoff tied the game on the power play with only seven seconds left in the middle period.
Dante Raposo got another power-play marker at 6:37 of the third to put the Miners in front, then Jamie Driedger and Kaden Hintz tallied 1:39 apart with less than seven minutes to play to put the game away.
“I believe every goal we let in right now is affecting our mindset too much for some reason,” Strachan said regarding giving up the quick back-to-back goals.
“We have to get the fight and battle into our game that we can claw back and win hockey games, and we don’t have that right now,” he admitted.
“The biggest shifts in games are right after a goal and either we give teams too many opportunities to gain more momentum or fight back against us.
“I felt we were in control of the game in the first period on Saturday,” Strachan said.
“It was our best period we had played in a while,” he noted. “We were intense, skating, being physical and going to the net.
“Not sure where our mindset went in the second, but we took too many unnecessary penalties and the 5-on-3 for 2:46 hurt at the end of the period.
“We almost had it killed . . . which could have gave us a big momentum boost,” Strachan lamented.
“In the third, their goalie stymies us on more than one opportunity and yet again another bad penalty hurts us as they get the game-winner on the power play.
“5-on-5, I felt we played a decent hockey game,” Strachan said.
“Our power play helps, but we hurt ourselves with penalties and seven of which were bad ones.”
Lenko had 27 saves to again get the win while Jessie Heisz stopped 30 shots in a losing cause.
The Lakers’ ever-expanding injury list isn’t helping their situation.
Forwards Austin Petrie (ankle) and defenceman Brandon Zajicek (concussion) hope to resume skating this week, but remain out indefinitely.
Forward Tyler Malpass is likely out for two more weeks (lower body) while forward Jaden Gustafson is still listed as day-to-day (shoulder).
Joining the walking wounded is forward Julian Uhryniuk (ribs), who missed both games against the Miners but hopes to be back this weekend.
On top of that, Saturday’s game claimed defencemen Matt Bruinsma (shoulder) and Connor Keith (upper body),
The Lakers return to the ice here this Friday at 7:30 p.m. against the third-place Thief River Falls Norskies (22-15-2-3).
Then they’ll welcome the Miners back to town for a matchup on Tuesday (Feb. 14) at 7:30 p.m.
