Lucas Punkari
After going through a minor dip in form earlier this month, things seemingly are hunky dory once again with the Fort Frances Lakers.
Currently in the midst of a four-home game homestand, the red-and-white are on a three-game winning streak heading into tonight’s clash against the Dryden Ice Dogs at the Ice For Kids Arena, with their two latest triumphs coming at the expense of the Iron Range Ironheads and Duluth Clydesdales over the weekend.
“It feels really good right now, especially since we got those two home wins under our belt,” said Lakers’ forward Henry Gutierrez.
“It was a big four-point weekend for us in the standings, and I’m glad that we were able to get those points,” he added.
The Lakers improved to 18-6-2 with the wins, which left them one point behind the defending SIJHL champion Wisconsin Wilderness for top spot in the standings (although the Wilderness have three games in hand).
The Lakers were out for redemption Friday night against the expansion Ironheads, who earned a stunning 3-2 victory in Chisholm back on Nov. 10.
This time around, though, the Ironheads were no match for the Lakers as the hosts scored four goals in the first and second periods en route to a convincing 9-2 triumph.
“I thought that we played pretty strong,” Lakers’ head coach/general manager Wayne Strachan said after the game.
“In the later portion of the first period, we started to get some momentum by getting two late goals,” he noted.
“And we just carried that over into the second period, where I thought we had the jump on them for 15 good minutes.
“We all feel pretty good about the game, and you can’t complain about getting the two points,” Strachan added.
Leading the Lakers on offence Friday was the recently-formed line of Byron Katapaytuk, Ryan Wildman, and Jordan Christianson, who had a hand in five of the nine goals.
“I added Jordan up there because I wanted a little more speed on Byron’s wing, plus Jordan works hard and has the skill to help both Byron and Ryan,” Strachan explained.
“Byron and Ryan play more of a power game along the boards, and with Jordan they have a guy who can generate plays by going through the holes.
“It took about three games for the guys to start clicking, but they had a great performance tonight [Friday] and they all had some pretty nice goals,” he added.
Katapaytuk was tops with a goal and four assists.
“I’ve been playing with Ryan since last year, and adding a fast little player like Jordan is just a great addition to our team, and he should help us out the rest of the year,” Katapaytuk said.
“Byron’s a workhorse and he’s a big part of our team both on the ice and in the dressing room,” noted Strachan. “And when he’s firing on all cylinders, he definitely helps out our team.”
Katapaytuk’s linemates, Wildman and Christianson, both had big games Friday with three-point outings, with Christianson netting his first two goals as a member of the Lakers.
“I have to say that was definitely my best performance with the team so far,” smiled Christianson, a 19-year-old from International Falls who was acquired from the MJHL’s OCN Blizzard on Nov. 17.
“Iron Range is a team that you should beat,” Christianson stressed. “But if you don’t come ready to play, they’ll take it to you so it was important that we played well.
“And we did just that.”
Also scoring for the Lakers against the Ironheads were Wildman, Henry Gutierrez, Merritt Rysavy, Marty McFadden, Jordan Larson, and Brett McMahon.
Saturday’s match-up with the Clydesdales ended up being a far more tougher challenge for the Lakers, who found themselves trailing 3-2 entering the third period.
“After about the first five shifts of the game, I thought that the momentum switched into their favour,” Strachan recalled.
“We talked about our game plan, which was to be physical, disciplined, and to play a whole 60 minutes, during the second intermission, and we hadn’t done any of those three things,” he stressed.
That lacklustre play quickly turned around at the start of the third, however, as Adam Wensley solved Clydesdales’ goalie Jason Dzurik at the 14-second mark to tie the game at 3-3.
“We all knew that we had to something at the start of the third period,” Wensley said.
“I was lucky to get a nice quick one there, and that allowed us to start get things going.”
On the ensuing face-off, Katapaytuk stole the puck from a Clydesdales’ forward, raced in all alone, and slid the puck past Dzurik to put the Lakers out front for good—a mere seven seconds after Wensley’s game-tying marker.
“It was a weird bounce on that face-off to start it off, but as long as the puck went and we won the game, I’ll take that any day,” Katapaytuk smiled.
“Those were easily the fastest two goals I’ve seen so far this year, and that was pretty nice to see,” Gutierrez added.
Katapaytuk was the leading scorer for the Lakers once again Saturday night with a goal and two assists. Gutierrez, Rysavy, and Wensley all had a goal and assist each.
Christianson and Jaret Leclair also lit the lamp.
Looking ahead, the Lakers will try to continue their winning ways tonight versus the Ice Dogs, with a much bigger contest against the Wilderness looming here Friday night.
“Those are going to be a couple of very big games,” Gutierrez remarked.
“Dryden will be a tough game as we haven’t played them in a while, and Wisconsin still has three games in hand on us, so it’ll be another huge four-point weekend,” he stressed.
“Dryden seems to be pretty hot right now so we’ll have to a do a little bit of a scouting report on them to see what has changed in their game plan since we last played,” Strachan noted.
“And Wisconsin just returned two of their best players [forward Wilson Housley and defenceman Lucas Hendrickson] from last year’s team, which has only made them stronger.
“The biggest thing for us going into those two games is with our defensive zone play, and making sure that we are physical and have good positions on the opposing forwards, whatever the situation is,” Strachan said.
“That is a thing that I say every week it seems, but to me that could be the one thing that is holding us back from being a solid team, or a team that is going to struggle if we don’t shore that end of the game up,” he warned.
This week also could see some new faces added to the lineup as the CJHL’s roster cutdown day takes place Thursday, leaving Strachan with some decisions to make.
“Personally, I like to have three or four cards left open for the Jan. 10 trade deadline,” he explained.
“We currently have 25 guys on cards right now and I would like to get that number down to 21 on Thursday.
“So we’re going to have some big decisions to make, and you might end up seeing some new faces in the lineup on Friday night,” Strachan said.
