Joey Payeur
The first goal with a new team always is one for the memory banks.
To do it in front of Mom and Dad? That just makes it an even grander occasion.
Ryan Gazich lit the lamp—and the faces of his happy loved ones on hand for the occasion—as he collected his first Tier II Junior ‘A’ goal in the Fort Frances Lakers’ 8-2 thumping of the Thunder Bay North Stars here Saturday night.
The first-place Lakers (14-2) now have won seven-straight games and also vaulted five places to No. 5 in the CJHL’s weekly top 20 rankings.
Gazich, however, is a solid No. 1 with the two people most responsible for getting him this far in the game.
“To do it in front of my parents felt good,” the 19-year-old defenceman from Eagan, Mn. said about bulging the twine against the last-place North Stars (6-10-0-2).
“I had been hoping to get it for a while and I got it tonight.”
Gazich’s goal late in the third period saw the blueliner venture down low from his customary spot on the point.
“I watched the play develop and there was an opening in the slot that was too big not to take,” he recalled.
“I was trying for the rebound of the shot and I was able to put it home.”
Another defenceman new to the Lakers’ fold—and new to the goal-scoring department—was Brandon Zajicek, who had his best night since joining the squad earlier this season with three points, including his first tally at the Junior ‘A’ level.
It was a sniper-quality goal while short-handed late in the first period for the 19-year-old from Albertville, Mn.
Zajicek chipped the puck past the North Stars’ defenceman and raced after it to set up a 2-on-1 with Andrew Willner.
He wound up keeping the puck and cranking a bullet past goalie Riley Corbin to make it 2-1 for the Lakers.
“I was thinking pass first,” chuckled Zajicek, one of eight different scorers for the Lakers on Saturday night.
“That or try a play we practice where I shoot it off the goalie’s opposite pad and the guy comes in from the other side for the rebound,” he added.
“It was a fantastic feeling and this is a great place to do it because I was hoping to do it at home.”
Lakers’ head coach and general manager Wayne Strachan applauded the efforts of his team’s latest offensive weapons.
“It’s always nice to see guys break through,” he remarked.
“Getting offence from our defence definitely helps our cause.”
Zajicek’s marker came after Carter Chorney and Thunder Bay’s Kenny Turner had traded goals earlier in the frame.
It also turned out to be the catalyst for a productive offensive night for the Lakers’ penalty-killing unit, which allowed its first goal after killing off 22-straight short-handed chances but then wound up netting three short-handed goals.
The second came on a superb one-man effort from Isaiah Olschewske just over a minute after Zajicek’s goal and while killing the same penalty.
Olschewske stole the puck in the neutral zone and skated back up the middle, fending off a Stars’ defenceman while neatly sliding a backhander past Corbin.
Former Laker Aaron Wesley-Chisel one-timed a cross-ice pass from Cashen Tighe on another Thunder Bay power-play to close the gap to one.
But the Lakers then scored five unanswered goals, including Dylan Kooner’s short-handed tally midway through the second, to turn a close game into a rout.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen us get three short-handed goals in one game, maybe two,” noted Strachan.
“The penalty kill has been a good part of our game lately, although we gave up two tonight with a couple of breakdowns where we were following the puck and getting out of position,” he added.
Jack Bernie, Christian Ripley, and Willmer closed out the scoring.
“[Our] last game against Thunder Bay at home was probably our best game of the season for having a 60-minute effort,” noted Strachan, referring to the Lakers’ 3-0 win back on Oct. 24.
“I challenged them tonight to be better than that and they came close.”
The offensive explosion happened without the Lakers having their top goal scorer this season, Dylan Robertson (12), in the lineup.
He was suffering
post-concussion symptoms following an elbow to the head during Thursday night’s 5-2 victory over the English River Miners in Ear Falls.
Also out of action Saturday was defenceman George Roblin, who was felled by a ’flu bug that left the Lakers with only 12 players for practice earlier in the week.
The Lakers next will host the second-place Dryden GM Ice Dogs (11-4-1) tomorrow at 7:30 p.m.
Then they’ll head to Hoyt Lakes on Saturday to face the Minnesota Iron Rangers (6-9-2).
