Joey Payeur
There’s no place like home for the holidays—or the playoffs, for that matter.
Such should be the case for the Fort Frances Lakers in the very near future after a 4-1 victory Saturday night against the visiting Minnesota Iron Rangers.
The win means the Lakers (34-9-0-1), who moved up one spot in the CJHL weekly top 20 rankings to No. 9, cannot be caught by the second-place Thunder Bay North Stars (25-21-4) for top spot.
Fort Frances (69 points) is ahead by 15 points over the North Stars (54), who only have six games left on their regular-season schedule.
Third-place Minnesota (52 points) and the fourth-place Dryden GM Ice Dogs (54) each have 10 games remaining and still are mathematically, if not realistically, in the running to catch the Lakers.
But a Fort win tonight in Dryden would dash the Ice Dogs’ chances and also drop their magic number to two to dispose of the Iron Rangers’ hopes.
A first-place finish would ensure the Lakers have home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs.
Saturday’s game was rife with physical confrontations that led to 23 penalties in all, leaving Lakers’ head coach and general manager Wayne Strachan looking both at the path behind and the road ahead.
“We’re getting down the stretch and there’s a little rivalry that’s been building up between these two teams over the last two years,” said Strachan.
“In the back of everyone’s mind is last year’s championship round.”
That would be a reference to the seven-game classic between the Lakers and Iron Rangers decided by a controversial Mason Meyer third-period goal.
“Everyone’s making their playoff push now,” said Lakers’ forward Dylan Robertson, who scored twice and added an assist in Saturday’s triumph.
“You don’t want to give up anything easy and we want to send a message,” he noted.
Strachan had his own message for the team during the first intermission, despite the Lakers leading 1-0 on Meyer’s power-play marker.
“After the first, coach talked to us to get us motivated to go out there and play harder,” said hard-nosed defenceman Gordon Campbell, who leads the squad in penalty minutes with 72.
“Lots of guys stepped up for each other,” he added.
“When you get to the playoffs, you’ve got to stick together.”
Iron Rangers’ head coach Chris Walby summarized his team’s setback succinctly.
“The wheels fell off the wagon,” said Walby, who issued repeated warnings to his team to steer clear of any shenanigans in the emotional latter stages of the game.
“We come in here healthier than we’ve been used to and then we lose a few guys tonight.
“It got ugly late in the third and it’s embarrassing for our team and theirs,” Walby added.
“That’s not how the game is supposed to be played.”
With top scorers Jason Reynolds and Evan Erickson already missing the game due to injuries, Minnesota lost another important dressing-room presence in forward Eric Madison in the first period.
Then defenceman Alex Arnold had his bell rung on a hit in the third period, which saw his head slammed into the glass—leaving him on the bench in great pain and unable to continue.
Robertson added to the lead with the lone goal of the second period—pouncing on an Iron Rangers’ turnover behind the Minnesota net, then wheeling in front and putting a backhander high to the stick side of former Laker Devin Tappenden.
The visitors announced their intention to stick around for a while less than a minute into the third when Will Fobair sent Matt O’Dea in alone on a breakaway.
But the spark from that goal was extinguished just 31 seconds later on a mixture of Laker skill and Ranger bad luck.
Cody Antonini found Robertson in full stride streaking up the middle.
Robertson was able to fend off defender Seth Chumley—thanks largely to an equipment malfunction—and beat
Tappenden low to the glove side to make it 3-1.
Wyatt Cota capped the scoring by converting Carter Chorney’s feed with a bullet from the high slot that went just inside the post.
Nathan Park made 19 saves for the win.
He was named the Amyotte’s Awards and Promotions Corp. player-of-the-week on Monday.
Park, who turned 20 today, has a sparkling 9-1 record with the Lakers this season.
He is the SIJHL leader in GAA (1.43) and save percentage (.943), and tied for second in shutouts (two).
The Lakers, meanwhile, will have to make do without forwards Matt Vela and Nolan Ross, who both sustained upper-body injuries and did not play Saturday.
Vela is expected to miss one-two weeks while Strachan was uncertain when the Fort Frances native will be able to resume skating with the team.
After facing the Ice Dogs tonight, the Lakers will play in Ear Falls on Friday against the English River Miners.
Then they’ll return home to meet Thunder Bay on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the Ice For Kids Arena.
