Canadians spank junior Broncos

A last-minute trip across the river Monday night turned into a convincing 7-2 victory for the Fort Frances Canadians Midget ‘AA’ team, who faced the International Falls junior varsity Broncos in their first game back from the holiday break.
“You have sort of a lull through the holiday season,” noted Canadians’ head coach Dave Egan. “To come back [Monday] night for sort of the start of the new year, it was a good showing.”
The game only was confirmed that morning, but the Canadians didn’t let the short notice hamper their offensive prowess.
Jared Baker led the way with a hat trick while Matt Goldamer netted a pair. Jordan Sinclair and David Chambers rounded out the scoring.
Special teams were the story in the win as three of the Canadians’ goals came on the penalty kill.
“What we’ve done in the last little while in the last few games, we’ve somewhat tinkered with our lines and tinkered with the power-play unit and penalty kill unit,” said Egan.
“[Monday] night everything sort of came together.
“Basically all of the lines contributed, and even though they may not all have gotten on the scoreboard, they all worked well offensively and defensively,” he added.
Wes Brown manned the net, playing what Egan called a “strong” game in front of a healthy crowd. About 200 people took in the cross-river rivalry—impressive numbers, Egan said, given the game wasn’t a certainty until only hours beforehand.
The Canadians picked up where they left off in late December, when they won a pair of games over Grand Rapids by scores of 7-3 and 9-4.
Meanwhile, the team won’t be seeing much of home ice for a while. They’ll take this weekend off, but will have tournaments south of the border every weekend for the next four weeks—starting with a 10-team tournament in Wayzata, Mn. from Jan. 18-20.
Despite the 18-3-3 record they’ve compiled up to this point in the season, Egan said the next month could be a meat grinder.
“I think the boys have a real good feeling entering those weekends, but at the same time we’re going to be facing some pretty tough competition,” he remarked.
“We’re going to have to be right on our game,” he stressed. “But like I say, the way things are going, the adjustments we’re making are going to turn out positive in games.”