Joey Payeur
It was a night of long-awaited firsts for Jaden Gustafson and his teammates.
The second-year forward netted his first two goals of the season to help the Fort Frances Lakers to a 6-3 win over the expansion Thief River Falls Norskies on Saturday night at the Ice For Kids Arena.
It also was the squad’s first three-game winning streak of the campaign.
After going 40 regular-season games without lighting the lamp dating back to last season, the relief was palpable on Gustafson’s face.
“I just tried to keep my feet moving and work hard and go to the net, and things were going my way,” said the 19-year-old native of Rainy River, who has been hampered by injuries in the early part of the season.
Gustafson got things rolling at 14:37 of the first—stepping up on offence after stepping up for a teammate.
Austin Storm earned Gustafson’s wrath after he drilled Lakers’ defenceman Mark Bruinsma into the corner from behind that wound up seeing Storm earn a five-minute boarding major and game misconduct.
Gustafson put a headlock on Storm and got two minutes for his decision. But he came out of the box and found himself staring at a juicy rebound off the end boards from a Ryan Gazich point shot that Gustafson stuffed past starting goalie Kross Braaten.
On the same power play, Jack Bernie tipped home a long shot by Ian Jarvis just 1:12 later for a 2-0 lead.
“With that long power play, it was important to respond in that way,” stressed head coach and general manager Wayne Strachan, whose Lakers (5-8-1-2) pulled with one point of the Norskies (6-8-0-2) for fourth place.
“To get those two quick goals sways the momentum and lifts the bench,” he noted.
Gustafson then was on the receiving end of a dynamite cross-ice feed from Matt Cheetham, who didn’t have an assist yet in eight games this season, and beat Braaten at 4:16 of the second.
“[Cheetham’s] pass was beautiful,” said Gustafson, who notched his first two-goal game at the junior level.
“We had a 3-on-1 and he made a nice pass right to me.”
Strachan, meanwhile, is crossing his fingers this is the start of a new chapter for Gustafson.
“Jaden can be a key player in our lineup, but we need him to play every night like he did tonight [Saturday],” he stressed.
“With a lot of key guys out of the lineup, I told them before the game we needed some people to step up and be leaders—and he did that.”
Mitchell Soderberg trimmed the lead to 3-1 at 8:40 of the second when he shoved home a loose puck right after a face-off.
But back came the Lakers with another high-speed play that ended the night for Braaten.
The Norskies tried to keep the puck in at the Fort blueline, but Matt Mason knocked it past his defender and dashed down the left wing.
Tearing up the middle was Tyler Malpass, who reeled in Mason’s pass and found an almost entirely open net staring him in the face as Braaten strangely was almost completely out of the play off to the left side of the net.
Malpass pounded the puck into the net and sent Braaten to the bench in favour of back-up Sam Novak.
Gazich promptly greeted Novak with a booming blast from the point at 12:49 that the goalie never saw as two players skated in front of him just before the puck arrived.
But the Norskies, who beat the Lakers in their inaugural SIJHL regular-season game, served notice they weren’t going to roll over.
Alec Daman and Connor Smith scored just over two minutes apart early in the third to make it 5-3.
Strachan decided to call time-out—and the move paid off.
“The theme over the last three games has been when we got ourselves in trouble, we’re able to rebound from it,” he noted.
“When the intensity needed to be picked up, like tonight [Saturday] early in the third period, we were able to respond.”
The Lakers buckled down defensively from then on—and their newest player put the stake through the Norskies’ heart.
Dawson Waddell, picked up this past week from the Steinbach Pistons (MJHL), took a pass from Matt Tustin, who took a sharp left turn to the bench for a line change.
Facing a 1-on-3 situation, Waddell decided to unload a shot, which zinged past Novak stick side at 10:19 to take what life was left in Thief River Falls out of them.
“I just put it right where the goalie couldn’t save it,” smiled the 18-year-old from Brandon.
Ryan Wagner made 26 saves to earn his third-straight win.
Brandon Zajicek had three assists to give him five for the week, good enough to make him the first Laker this season to earn the Play It Again Sports player of the week award.
The Lakers, who don’t play again until Nov. 25 against the host Dryden GM Ice Dogs in the first of three-straight road games, are anticipating being in good health after their lengthy hiatus.
Forwards Julian Uhryniuk and Tanner Garnham, as well as goalie Brandon Bodnar, are definite possibilities to be back for the Dryden game.
Even defenceman Bryce Patterson, who hasn’t played since breaking his wrist in training camp, also may be ready.
Forward Jared Virtanen and defenceman Frank Zhong remain out indefinitely, but will be back at some point.
That isn’t the case for forward Nathan Washington.
His junior career came to an abrupt end due to a back injury that led to the 20-year-old heading home to Coquitlam, B.C. to rehabilitate it.
The Lakers’ next home game is set for Dec. 2 against Dryden.
