Staff
Instead of leaving it in their coach’s hands, the Fort Frances Lakers made the decision themselves to take the weekend off.
Six different players scored as the Lakers swept their best-of-seven semi-final series with a 6-3 victory over the host English River Miners last night.
The Lakers now advance to the SIJHL final for the fifth-straight year, where they’ll be gunning to capture a third-consecutive title against either the Dryden GM Ice Dogs or the Thunder Bay North Stars.
That best-of-seven showdown will open at the Ice For Kids Arena, with the date still to be determined.
The Miners didn’t give up easily despite the huge odds of trying to come back in the series against a team that beat them all 18 times they faced off this season—and 24-straight dating back to last year.
Dylan Kooner and Mike Norris traded goals in the first period before Andrew Willner and Alex Maticic did the same in the second, with both Miners’ goals coming on the power play.
Momentum shifted to the Lakers’ side in the final three minutes of the middle frame.
Nick Minerva put Fort Frances back in front at 17:12, followed only 1:16 later by Davis Ross’ power-play goal to make it 4-2.
Riley Wagner kept English River close with his tally at 10:50 of the third.
But Christian Ripley, who broke the Miners’ hearts with the game-winning short-handed goal in Game 2, made it 5-3 at 12:48.
Nolan Ross added an empty-netter with 10 seconds left to ice it.
Brandon Bodnar took advantage of his first start of the post-season by making 30 saves to earn the win as Pierce Dushenko was given the night off.
Korlan Vader had 22 stoops in defeat for the Miners, who won only their second playoff series in team history after upsetting the Minnesota Iron Rangers in five games in the first round after trailing 2-0.
Meanwhile, Game 3 of the other semi-final ground to an abrupt halt last night due to technical difficulties in Thunder Bay with Dryden up 2-0 in the series.
Thunder Bay took a 3-0 lead just past the midway point of the second—only to watch the Ice Dogs rally with two of their own before the period was out to make it 3-2.
But with 3:55 gone in the third, a power outage extinguished the lights at the Fort William Gardens that caused the game to be suspended.
That sets up the unusual scenario tonight where the teams will continue Game 3 from that point.
Then the ice will be resurfaced at its conclusion before the teams return to square off in Game 4.
Game 5, if necessary, will be go Sunday afternoon in Dryden, with a possible Game 6 back in Thunder Bay on Tuesday.
Should the series go the distance, Game 7 will be held next Friday in Dryden.
