It was a chippy affair but a 28-save effort by Brady Cates and an offensive outburst across the lineup saw the Fort Frances Lakers bounce back in the home half of a two game home and home series against the Thunder Bay North Stars on Saturday night at Ice For Kids Arena.
Defenseman Judd Pesch got the Lakers on the board early as he scored his third goal of the season just over three minutes into the game.
The first period was largely a back and forth affair, with the Lakers topping the North Stars 13-8 in shots.
The Lakers came out of the first intermission on fire. Pesch scored his second of the game off a feed from Carter Deschamps to put the Lakers up 2-0, and just over a minute later, Ty Nessler scored the Lakers’ third of the game thanks to a pass from Tie Schumacher.
Following the game, Lakers GM and Head Coach Luke said it was important to maintain the momentum going into the second.
“That’s been one of our struggles, is letting teams hang around and it was nice to kind of keep our foot on their throats and kind of end the game early,” Judson said.
The second period also saw a parade to the penalty box, with the Lakers taking five infractions and the North Stars four including a fight which has become rare in the SIJHL with most players wearing full cages. After the North Stars Samuel Bunel was assessed a boarding penalty, after a hard hit against a Lakers player, Greg Wiseman came to the aid of his teammate. Both combatants were assessed game misconducts for the fight as is common practice in the league.
Before the end of the frame, Teagan Wrolstad, recently named to the league’s all-star team dazzled the crowd with an individual puck handling effort to beat North Stars’ goalie Connor Dunham-Fox for the Lakers’ fourth goal of the game.
Cates stayed perfect through two periods stopping all seven of Thunder Bay’s shots.
Lakers newcomer Jace Van Eps scored his third goal since joining the team in late November, and chased the North Stars’ starter from the crease.
Former Laker Ben Exell dashed Cates’ hopes for his second shutout of the season with a goal 11 minutes into the third, but Tie Schumacher restored the five goal lead with just over three minutes remaining in the game.
With the Lakers win and a Dryden Ice Dogs loss on Saturday, the Lakers drew within two points of the league leaders for top spot with a game in hand.
Judson said he liked the way the team bounced back from the loss the previous night in Thunder Bay.
“I actually thought we played a pretty good game last night and we had a few things to clean up that they capitalized on,” he said.
“The boys came to play tonight and I think it was a statement win.”
On the scrap in the second period between Wiseman Bunel, following the boarding call Judson says despite the rarity of fights in the league now, it’s good to see guys step up that way and build team chemistry.
“It’s a different game, you don’t see near as much of that as you used to because we have cages, so it’s kind of hard to step up for your teammates in that way,” he said.
“I was glad he got in there, I think things like that bring the boys together. We’re happy he was in there and I think it shows what kind of teammate he is.”
The Lakers will wrap up 2025 on the road with a pair of series in Sioux Lookout and Ironwood, Michigan over the next two weeks. Those teams sit fifth and sixth in league standings respectively and the Lakers are hoping to come out with a strong showing over the two road trips, especially with a three week Christmas break ahead of them.
“It’s a conversation we’ve had a lot in the dressing room,” Judson said.
“It’s a long stretch from August when the guys get here to Christmas, but the message is we can put ourselves in a really good situation for the second half with four big games. It’s not going to be easy but they’ve been up to the task so far, so hopefully we can finish these two weeks off the right way.”
Lakers Defenseman Wyatt Greer was named d-man of the week for the last week in November, alongside Cates who pitched a shut out Nov. 29 over Dryden.
Cates also earned the League’s goalie of the month honours with a 4-1-0 record in November including the shutout and a 0.957 save percentage and 1.38 goals against average, which were top stats across the league’s netminders.
The Lakers hung on to the 17th ranking in the Canadian Junior Hockey League’s top 20 teams and both of the team’s goalies sit in the top ten among CJHL goalies for GAA, with Cates sitting second and Nolan Koethler ranked ninth.
The Lakers resume play after the Christmas break with a two game weekend series against the Thunder Bay North Stars on January 9 and 10.
