Dan Falloon
It hasn’t been just the usual suspects lighting the lamp for the Fort Frances Lakers in their playoff run thus far.
Actually, top-liners Tyler Stevenson and Justin Erhart were kept relatively in check for much of the Lakers’ first-round series with the K&A Wolverines.
But the team’s role players picked up the slack, including Jordan Carne and Byron Katapaytuk, who sit perched atop the list of top playoff scorers with 10 points and nine points, respectively.
But digging just a little deeper on that list, just past Stevenson and Erhart (who have caught fire in recent games), reveals a huge reason as to why the Lakers are hanging tight with the powerhouse Ice Dogs in their semi-final showdown that’s knotted at 2-2 heading into Game 5 in Dryden tonight.
During the SIJHL regular season, Mike Jourdain, Jaret Leclair, and Irv Lockman combined for 28 points for the Lakers. But when the post-season hit, so, too, did a sense of urgency for the Lakers’ energy players, who already have cobbled together 20 points between them in the Lakers’ 11 playoff games so far.
Some of those points have come at urgent times.
Jourdain, for example, banged home a late goal in Game 2 of the Lakers’ first-round series against K&A to earn the team a 1-0 win and a critical split of the first two games in Thunder Bay.
And then again in Monday night’s 4-2 over Dryden in Game 4 here, he set up Blake Boaz’s winner midway through the third period to help knot the best-of-seven series.
Jourdain agreed he’s felt like a new player during the post-season, with the few days of rest that he’s been afforded here and there giving him time to heal some aches and pains, especially a wonky knee that hampered him late in the regular season.
“I feel a lot stronger and a lot faster [during the playoffs],” he acknowledged. “Those few days in between the end of the regular season and the start of the playoffs really helped.”
And Jourdain feels he’s taken on a more significant role with the Lakers, blossoming into a more than a one-dimensional threat for coach Wayne Strachan.
“He really wanted me to grind and play a physical game. He’s been trusting me to do that,” Jourdain stressed.
“But now I’m really being counted on to score, too.
“I was never really all that strong defensively, but now I’m starting to become a two-way player,” he added.
Jourdain also has started to heat up alongside linemates Carne and Katapaytuk, forming the Lakers’ most consistently dangerous line so far in the playoffs.
“I’m really starting to connect with my linemates,” Jourdain said. “It’s really been a fun experience.”
He and his line haven’t faltered in Fort Frances’ semi-final match-up with the Ice Dogs. Both of his goals in Game 1 gave the Lakers a lead, although both advantages were for naught as the team eventually fell 4-3 in overtime.
Jourdain has tallied five times in 10 games—well ahead of his regular-season pace of eight.
Meanwhile, a goal by Leclair has been a positive omen for the Lakers as they’re 2-0 in the playoffs when he bulges the twine.
With two goals, Leclair already is halfway to his regular-season total of four. And his next post-season assist will match his season output of five.
He underlined the importance of having all four lines firing in the playoffs, which was a trait that eluded the Lakers for much of the regular season.
“I feel like all of our lines have just been going,” Leclair remarked. “That’s how we’ve been keeping up with Dryden.
“I just feel like we have more energy,” he enthused. “We just have to raise our game out there.
“I think I’m more confident out there and that’s what you need.”
But Lockman, who notched just three points during the regular season, equalled that with a hat trick in Game 4 against the Wolverines.
“I don’t score a whole lot, it was kind of different to get all those at once,” he admitted.
“It was a great feeling.”
Lockman’s third goal provided a boost to the Lakers in a game they ultimately lost 5-4—awakening a team that was reeling after a 3-1 lead morphed into a 5-3 deficit.
The Lakers pressured K&A goalie Spencer Malone the rest of the way, but couldn’t find the equalizer.
“After the second, what everyone was saying is that they could feel a third coming,” recalled Lockman. “Right after I got it, right away, everyone was pretty happy.
“It would have been nice to get the win, though.”
The 19-year-old has taken a while to get up to speed with the Lakers after sitting out the entire 2008-09 season. But now that he’s hit his stride, Lockman has been a force on the ice—and said he’s noticed the improvement.
“I’ve been playing a lot better, it feels like,” he acknowledged. “I knew that I had to step ’er up for the playoffs, and I feel that I have.
“It was tough trying to keep up with everyone at first, with all their size and speed,” he noted.
