Staff
As Maxwell Smart would say, the Fort Frances Canadians missed it by that much.
After a flawless record during the round-robin, the Midget ‘AA’ Canadians couldn’t string together a fourth-straight win in falling 3-2 to Wayzata in Sunday’s final of the second-annual Gus Lindberg Memorial tournament here.
Both teams traded goals in the first period, with Jordan Sinclair netting one for the host Canadians while Brett Day replied for Wayzata.
That score held up until the third when Wayzata’s Zach Rhodes broke the deadlock early in the period.
The Canadians battled back, however, getting the equalizer off the stick of Cole Calder. But then Day found the net again for Wayzata just over two minutes later to give the visitors the narrow victory.
The Canadians had opened the tournament with a 7-0 win over Sioux Lookout on Friday evening. Sinclair had a hat trick while adding an assist, with Jake Witherspoon, Brett Bodnarchuk, Calder, and Cody Bodnar adding singles.
The hosts then doubled Duluth 4-2 on Saturday. The Canadians led 3-2 after one period on goals by Calder, Sinclair, and Bodnarchuk.
Tim Sharp scored the only other goal the rest of the way—tallying a short-handed marker in the second while killing off a 5-on-3 advantage for Duluth.
The Canadians closed out the round-robin later Saturday with a 4-1 win over the Assiniboine Park Rangers (Winnipeg).
The Rangers jumped out to an early 1-0 lead, but Ryan Lundy got that one back before the end of the period.
The score remained that way until the Canadians struck for two quick goals to close out the second. Jeff Cridland struck first, deflecting defenceman Nathan Calder’s point shot past Rangers’ goalie Kevin Nikkel.
Then Brandon Legarie converted on a cross-crease pass from Sharp to give the Canadians a two-goal cushion after 40 minutes.
Jeff Gustafson rounded out the scoring with an unassisted goal in the third period.
Wayzata, meanwhile, went 1-0-2 in the round-robin to claim second spot and advance to Sunday’s final.
The Rangers won the third-place game 6-5 over Sioux Lookout while the Dryden Renegades beat Duluth 9-6 in the consolation final.
The Canadians are back in action this weekend at a tournament in Duluth.
