All eyes will be on the Ice For Kids Arena here next week as the Fort Frances Lakers vie to capture the Dudley Hewitt Cup and advance to the Royal Bank Cup national Junior ‘A’ championship May 9-17 in Portage La Prairie, Man.
The Lakers certainly showed the resiliency necessary to win during the SIJHL final against the Dryden Ice Dogs. Down 2-1 in the best-of-seven series and trailing 2-1 in the third period of Game 4 on the road, the squad easily could have packed it in knowing they already had a Dudley Hewitt berth as the host team.
Instead, the Lakers scored twice to pull out the victory—then went on to win the next two games to become the first Fort Frances-based franchise to earn back-to-back SIJHL titles.
Fort Frances hosted the Dudley Hewitt Cup back in 2003, when the former Borderland Thunder fell 3-2 to the Wellington Dukes in the semi-final of the four-team tournament to crown the Central Canada Junior ‘A’ champion. Then last year, the Lakers lost 6-0 in the semi-final to the Toronto Lakeshore Patriots down in Wellington.
No doubt the team is hungry to better those semi-final ousters this time around.
The three latest incarnations of Junior ‘A’ hockey here—the Borderland Thunder, Fort Frances Jr. Sabres, and now the Lakers—all enjoyed solid fan support. Hopefully, that continues next week to give the Lakers a real home-ice advantage in their quest for the Dudley Hewitt Cup.
In the meantime, kudos to the Lakers’ organization for taking on the challenge of hosting the tournament and all the community support required to pull it off.
It certainly is a costly venture but local businesses are sure to reap plenty of financial spin-offs that otherwise would not have happened. It also is an excellent opportunity to showcase our community to other areas of the province.
Welcome to all the visiting teams and their fans. But pardon our hometown pride as we yell: “Go Lakers!”
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
