Staff
The Fort Frances Lakers split a home-and-home series with the Sioux Lookout Flyers over the weekend.
After losing the opener 7-5 here Friday night, the Lakers snapped a five-game winless drought with a 1-0 win over the hosts Sunday evening.
Jordan Carne’s goal five minutes into the game stood up as the game-winner while Emo native Jameson Shortreed stopped all 36 shots he faced for the hard-earned shutout.
The Lakers improved to 2-5-1 on the young SIJHL season while the Flyers sit third overall at 5-4.
A late-game collapse in Friday night’s game at the Ice For Kids Arena epitomized the Lakers’ season to date.
Trailing 5-4 going into the final period, the Flyers stormed back with three unanswered goals to steal the road win.
Ben Hilborn, Jake Ransom, Byron Katapaytuk, Tyler Stevenson, and Colton Kennedy scored for the Lakers in that one.
Alex Riveness had a hat trick for the visitors, with Brad Bienvenue, Adam Wensley, Nathan Brown, and Colten Brule adding singles.
Jordan Giguere replaced David Novak between the pipes after the Lakers’ third goal, and stopped 23 of the 25 shots he faced for the win.
The Lakers face the Dryden Ice Dogs tonight at the Ice For Kids Arena before entertaining the Fort William North Stars for back-to-back games beginning Friday.
“We proved last week when we put our minds to it, we can compete and out-play [Dryden],” Lakers’ head coach Wayne Strachan said.
“Our team defence will have to be strong and on as they have a lot of speed and move the puck nice with their skill,” he noted.
“We need to counter this with a lot of pressure on their defence—getting pucks and bodies to the net with traffic to get to their goaltending,” Strachan stressed.
