Staff
It probably was a bad idea to yell “trick or treat” at the Ice For Kids Arena this week since much of the time, the answer seemed to be a resounding “trick.”
The Fort Frances Lakers dropped their second-straight game on home ice after the Sioux Lookout Flyers (4-9-1) escaped with a 3-2 overtime win last night.
After head coach Wayne Strachan lambasted the team’s effort in a 3-1 loss to Dryden here Tuesday night, the Lakers came out flying in the early going.
The hosts finished off the first period, in which they outshot the Flyers 15-5, with a power-play goal from Tyler Stevenson, who banged away around goalie Jesse Wilkins before knocking home his league-leading 15th tally of the year at 16:30.
The goal salvaged a power-play in which Jace Baldwin had been foiled moments earlier on a give-and-go with Blake Boaz.
But the Flyers (4-9-1) responded with a pair of goals early in the second.
Allowed a two-on-one break, Nelson Rosiak kept the puck and fired a high shot over Lakers‘ goalie Jameson Shortreed.
Then just 1:56 later, Dwight Lee buried a rebound to stake the visitors to a 2-1 lead.
Shortreed had made the initial save on Darnell Ferland, but the rebound came right to Lee, who made no mistake.
Sioux Lookout’s Brett Ferguson had a chance to double the lead later in the period, but his wrister clanged off the crossbar and bounced out.
The Lakers stormed back and knotted the game in the third when Henry Gutierrez forced his fifth goal of the season past Wilkins on the power-play at 12:52.
In overtime, though, the Flyers were given another two-on-one—an Achilles heel for Fort Frances all game long.
This time Kalan Ewald dished off to Rosiak, who fired the puck into the yawning cage at 2:55.
Shortreed ended up with 25 saves while Wilkins, who turned in a 51-save performance in a win over the Lakers earlier this month, stopped 39.
Fort Frances now has a few days off to regroup before facing the Fort William North Stars in Thunder Bay on Wednesday (Nov. 3).
The first-place Lakers (9-6-1) lead Fort William by one point, although the North Stars have three games in hand.
Fort Frances then will kick off a two-game homestand beginning next Friday (Nov. 5) against the expansion Duluth Clydesdales.
