Canadians end season with win

The Fort Frances Canadians ended their season on a positive note with a 5-3 win over the host Thunderhawks last Thursday in Grand Rapids.
“It was a good game for both sides,” Canadians’ head coach Dave Egan enthused.
“They were honouring their seniors and it was a good end-to-end game for the fans,” he added. “It was a good way for both teams to end it.”
The win was a fitting conclusion to a season that saw the Canadians start slowly but improve steadily over the course of the winter.
“I was pleasantly surprised with how the boys grew and developed as a team,” Egan said.
“We had player changes at the beginning of the season and when the dust settled, we knew we had to be patient as a team,” he noted. “We had several rookies and some of them had never competed at the ‘AA’ level.
“Basically we competed well, aside from a couple of blowouts. I was very pleased.”
With so many young players on the roster, Egan now is looking forward to next season when the Canadians should take another step in the right direction.
“We have 12 boys on our current roster that our eligible to return, so things look pretty promising if they all return,” he enthused.
The Canadians got off to a strong start against the Thunderhawks when Kyle Herr opened the scoring just over five minutes into the first period with an unassisted marker.
The Fort Frances squad held onto the slim one-goal advantage for the rest of the period despite being outshot 10-6.
Grand Rapids leveled the score at 1-1 at 14:26 of the second frame when Aaron Riehle beat Canadians’ goalie Joe Bodnar.
Andrew Rassmussen then gave the Thunderhawks their first lead of the game three minutes later.
Tyler Harris answered with an unassisted goal of his own to pull the Canadians back level at 2-2 with just under half of the second period still to be played.
The goals continued to come fast and furious as Rassmussen scored his second of the game to put the Thunderhawks back in the lead.
However, the Canadians would score two goals in quick succession before the period was out to take a 4-3 advantage into the second intermission.
Ashe Woolsey netted the game-tying marker, assisted by Dayton Brown and assistant captain Justin Scott, before Ryan Shortreed gave the Canadians the lead after he converted a Colin Barton pass.
The Canadians put the Thunderhawks away late in the third period when Woolsey notched his second of the night.
Steven Beck and Brandon Legarie drew the assists.