Joey Payeur
The Fort Frances Lakers made sure Christmas would be a little more merry for them.
Third-period goals by Jared Virtanen and Dylan Kooner lifted the squad to a 4-3 win over the English River Miners in SIJHL action Saturday night at the Ice For Kids Arena.
The victory ensured Fort Frances would enter the league’s two-week holiday break on a winning streak after also edging the Minnesota Iron Rangers 4-3 in overtime here Friday thanks to Mark Bruinsma’s first SIJHL goal at 1:32 of the extra session.
“We set out to achieve the four points and we got them, and we can be happy with that,” noted Lakers’ head coach and general manager Wayne Strachan.
“It’s a step in the right direction and we can head into the break with some confidence while also creeping closer to the Miners and Thief River Falls,” he said.
With the wins, the Lakers climbed back to the .500 mark (11-11-1-3) and are just one point back of English River (12-12-1-2) for fourth place and three behind Thief River Falls (12-2-2-3) for third.
Kooner and Matt Cheetham put the Lakers up 2-0 in the first period Saturday but the Miners tied things up in the second on goals by Michael Di Lullo and Trevor Pereverzoff less than four minutes apart.
But Virtanen and Kooner continued their dynamic duo routine by setting each other up in the third.
Virtanen took Kooner’s pass and rushed up the left side before swinging to the middle and blasting a 20-footer past Michael Lenko just 46 seconds into the period.
Then after failing to score on a two-man advantage before winding up shorthanded themselves, Virtanen forced a turnover and sent a lead pass to Kooner.
The speedster had one Miners’ defender to beat but elected to shoot instead, zipping the puck past Lenko high to the glove side to make it 4-2.
Pereverzoff drew English River closer with a power-play goal at 12:55.
But Lakers’ goalie Brandon Bodnar shut the door the rest of the way, including robbing Miners’ leading scorer Sidney Gladue on the doorstep with 15 seconds to go.
Bruinsma salvaged Friday night’s game against the Iron Rangers with his rebound effort after the Lakers blew a 3-1 lead in the final five minutes of regulation time on two goals by Logan Froberg.
“In practice, I’ve been pretty good in 3-on-3 so I thought I would give it a shot,” grinned Bruinsma, a more defensive-minded blueliner who has just four points in 20 games this season.
“I had the first shot, then a backhander that got stopped, but I grabbed the rebound and the third shot went in,” he noted.
Cody Merritt also netted his first goal since joining the Lakers while Kooner and Connor Keith had the other markers.
Former Laker Isaiah Olschewske tallied the Iron Rangers’ lone goal on a power play.
Bodnar earned the win in goal.
The Lakers played both games with just five defencemen as Ryan Gazich (ribs) and Brandon Zajicek (ankle) sat out, along with forwards Domi Allan (concussion) and Austin Petrie (illness).
Strachan was confident Gazich, Allan, and Petrie would be back by the end of the holiday break.
Zajicek is expected to return in the first half of January.
The Lakers resume play Jan. 3 at 7:30 p.m. when they host the Iron Rangers again.
