Staff
The Fort Frances Canadians may have gone south over the weekend, but their play certainly didn’t.
The local Midget ‘AA’ team captured gold at the Jr. Gold Tournament in Brookings, S.D., defeating foes from Fargo and Mounds View as well as their hosts.
The Canadians got off to a good start Saturday morning, dousing the Fargo Flames 5-1.
After taking a 2-0 lead on first-period goals by Brady McMahon and Brad McDonald, Jeff Gustafson made it 3-0 in the second.
John Litzinger replied for Fargo less than two minutes later, but Ryan Lundy regained the three-goal lead just 1:08 after that.
Wes Anderson then rounded out the scoring with 2:48 left in the third.
The Canadians outshot the Flames by wide 46-15 margin.
In their second game Saturday, the Canadians were forced to bounce back twice after tallies by Brookings.
Erick Bauermeister opened the scoring for the hosts just 1:05 in, but Anderson knotted the match at 1-1 at 3:53.
Coby Larson gave Brookings the lead again 11:14 into the period, but Brett Bodnarchuk tied the score just 36 seconds later.
The Canadians took the lead for good at 14:02 of the second as Ryder Woolsey tallied.
Gustafson then added an insurance marker 3:14 into the third to give Fort Frances the 4-2 win.
In a fairly evenly-matched game, the shots were even at 27 apiece, with James Wallin making 25 saves for the Canadians.
Fort Frances’ final game of the tournament was the Ryan Lundy show, whose hat trick sparked the Canadians to a 4-1 victory over Mounds View.
Lundy opened the scoring at 4:27 of the first with help from Gustafson, who assisted on all three of his goals.
Lundy then put the Canadians up 3-0 with goals at 6:51 and 9:22 of the second period.
Mounds View got on the board at 7:03 of the third when John Osterbauer beat Wallin.
But Brad McDonald sealed the deal with just over a minute to play to give Fort Frances a perfect 3-0 record at the tournament,
Wallin and Brennan Carroll combined to kick out 18 of the 19 Mounds View shots while the Canadians fired 35 at the Jr. Gold net.
