Joey Payeur
Jackson Browne could have provided the soundtrack for the Fort Frances Lakers this past Friday because they certainly were running on empty.
With just 15 skaters to start the game due to a spate of recent injuries and 13 by the end of the game because of two ejections, the Lakers were short on steam in their engine in a 2-0 loss to the Thief River Falls Norskies in SIJHL action at the Ice for Kids Arena.
“We’re not going to make excuses,” declared Fort general manager and head coach Wayne Strachan, whose Lakers (19-19-2-3) have now lost four straight and fallen five points behind the English River Miners (22-18-1-3) for fourth place.
“We’ve been shorthanded the last four, five games, but you’ve still got to come to compete and play your game.”
Connor Schuster had the only goal for either side with a goaltender guarding the cage when his second-period shot off a 2-on-2 rush found its way past Fort goalie Brandon Bodnar (32 saves) at 5:30 of the second for what would stand up as the game-winner.
Keaton Huot beat the buzzer with an empty-netter with two seconds remaining and Ryan Buttazzoni had 32 stops of his own to earn the shutout.
The Lakers played the game without injured forwards Tyler Malpass, Austin Petrie and Jaden Gustafson and defencemen Brandon Zajicek, Matt Bruinsma and Connor Keith with Midget ‘A’ call-up Izzy Smith seeing his first SIJHL action of the season on Friday.
The ranks diminished even further when Cody Merritt was tossed at 12:31 of the first after trading haymakers with Dylan Dix of the Norskies, while Julian Uhryniuk got the rest of the night off after being tagged for a check from behind on Mitchell Soderberg with .4 seconds left in the second.
It will be a Valentine’s Day encounter for the Fort tomorrow night when it hosts the Miners at the Ice for Kids Arena at 7:30 p.m.
