Lucas Punkari
It’s often said a two-goal lead is the most difficult to defend in hockey, and that’s something the Fort Frances Lakers found out first-hand last night.
The Lakers saw their multi-goal cushion evaporate on two separate occasions at the hands of the visiting Dryden Ice Dogs, who skated away with a 6-5 shootout triumph at the Ice For Kids Arena.
After jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the first period, the Lakers gave up three goals in a four-minute span at the start of the second that gave Dryden a 3-2 lead.
Then after Jordan Larson knotted the score later in the period, the Lakers regained their two-goal advantage in the third thanks to goals by Larson and Connor Hady.
But the Ice Dogs roared back once again as Cole Sonstebo and Ty Brueggeman both netted power-play goals in the late stages of regulation time.
With overtime solving nothing, both teams headed to a shootout, with Austin Lewis scoring the lone goal for the Ice Dogs while goalie Dean Shepherdson stymied all three Lakers’ shooters to give his team the win.
“Even though we were up a few times in the game, I didn’t think the effort was where it needed to be,” visibly-frustrated head coach/general manager Wayne Strachan said after the game.
“Our game plan was to push the pace, use our speed and to be physical,” he noted.
“And maybe I’ve got to start going in the room and tell the guys the opposite of what we should do, as maybe we’ll do it.
“They better realize that the way that they play is not working, and when they play to our game plan and our systems, we’ll end up winning the game,” Strachan stressed.
Larson led the Lakers offensively with a pair of goals, with Marty McFadden and Blake Boaz, who returned to the lineup after missing the last two months with a wrist injury, also scoring.
As for the Ice Dogs, who earned their first win over the Lakers this season in their fourth try last night, they were led by Thomas Greene, who scored twice and also had an assist.
“I think the key to the game was just about keeping our heads up,” Greene noted.
“When we got a couple of goals down, you could kind of see everyone starting to get down a little bit,” he added. “But all that you really need to get back into the game is one good play, and that could be from a hit, a goal, or a shot on net.
“As we started to rally, everyone on the team got caught up in that wave, and it was just a ripple effect from then on.”
Ryan Lobreau also scored for the Ice Dogs, with Len Pelletier and Jesse Linner adding a pair of assists each.
Next up for the Lakers is a date with the league-leading Wisconsin Wilderness here tomorrow (Dec. 2) at 7:30 p.m.
The Lakers sport a record of 18-6-3, which puts them two points behind the Wilderness (20-3-1 mark), although Wisconsin holds three games in hand.
Prior to that game, the Lakers are expected to make a few roster moves later today, which is roster cut-down day for the CJHL.
“Right now we have 25 guys on our roster, and I would like to have 21 guys so we have some room to work with for adding guys prior to the [CJHL] trade deadline on Jan. 10,” Strachan noted.
