Mitch Calvert
It was a whirlwind stretch of three games in four days that featured a little bit of everything for the Fort Frances Canadians Midget ‘AA’ hockey team.
The Canadians started things off with a bang, trouncing the Baudette Bears’ junior varsity squad 6-1 last Thursday backed by two goals apiece from Cody Bodnar and Brandon Sinclair.
Ryan Lundy and Tim Sharp added singles.
The squad then headed to Manitoba for a pair of games—opening the two-game set with a rough 8-0 loss to Beausejour on Saturday.
“It was one of those nights where nothing went right,” Canadians’ head coach Marcel Pagee said. “Our guys didn’t bring the energy and they didn’t try to get the momentum, and instead just watched it happen.”
The Canadians rebounded, however, with a 4-4 tie against Pinawa on Sunday.
Lundy, Sharp, Tyson McLean, and Jeff Cridland scored to pace the attack.
“We worked hard that game, earned everything we got,” Pagee enthused.
“It was kind of a seesaw battle,” he noted. “2-0 in the first for them, and we ended up tying it up and taking the lead with three unanswered goals.
“A little bit of undisciplined play and a few questionable calls by the linesman, never mind the ref, cost us,” Pagee added.
“A questionable icing call brought it all the way down to our end, and right off the draw they put it in the net.”
The Canadians’ season is coming to a close shortly with March Break signalling the end, but the squad is hoping to arrange a final hurrah this weekend.
“We don’t have any final playoff round-robin, unfortunately, since we’re more of a tournament and travel team,” Pagee noted.
“We were looking at doing a year-end tournament [this weekend], but we’re not sure what’s going to happen since we haven’t had teams commit just yet.
Pagee said they’re looking at having a few teams come down with Sioux Lookout and St. Thomas Aquinas (Kenora).
“We have this week full of practice here, and we’ll see if some teams want to come down and play us,” he remarked.
“But if not, that will be our season and hopefully it’ll tide the guys over until 3-on-3 starts up.”
