Canadians extend winning streak

The Fort Frances Canadians Midget ‘AA’ hockey squad was rolling sevens in Manitoba last weekend, but these days it’s hardly a crapshoot when they take to the ice.
If the second half of the regular season, and subsequent grouping of the Canadians with the best teams in the Eastman Midget League (Manitoba), was supposed to intimidate Fort Frances, they’ve yet to show practically any distress while running up a 7-0 record in the ‘A’ Division.
Their latest triumphs came on the road, winning 7-4 on Saturday over the Mitchell Mohawks and then 5-1 on Sunday versus the Springfield IceHawks.
The “A” stitched on Canadians’ assistant captain Brian Vargas’ jersey could have stood for awesome Saturday against Mitchell as the forward netted a hat trick as part of a four-point game.
He started the Fort Frances assault by scoring at 5:29 of the first, followed 14 seconds later by Elijah Smith’s marker to make it 2- 0.
Mitchell’s Geoff Reimer cut into the lead at 7:45, but Shaun Egan and Canadians captain Tyler Pocock had the only goals of the second period to boost the lead to 4-1.
An action-packed third period saw each team connect for three goals.
Mike Fast of the Mohawks kickstarted the excitement at 2:13 to trim the deficit to 4-2, but Scott Howarth scored just 1:26 later to restore the Canadians’ three-goal cushion.
Justin Kehler and Terrence Isaac tallied 1:34 apart midway through the third to make things interesting.
But Vargas stepped to the forefront— scoring at 14:44 and again 22 seconds later to ice any comeback hopes by Mitchell.
It was a different set of heroes that garnered the acclaim in Sunday’s win over Springfield.
Trevor Lind, who had two points in the game, netted the lone goal at 16:55 of the opening frame to give the Canadians the lead.
Zach Halwachs and Brett Meyers found the back of the net in a span of 1:47 to hike the advantage to 3- 0, then scored in reverse order in the first 10 minutes of the third to salt the game away.
Mike Taylor kept the IceHawks from being blanked by tallying at 13:58 of the final period.
The Canadians next face a serious test this weekend when they travel to Thunder Bay to go toe-totoe with the Hurricanes in a bestof- three series, with the winner advancing to the Ontario Winter Games on March 11-14 in London.
The squad resumes play in the Eastman Midget League on Jan. 31 when they host the Grunthal Red Wings.