Joey Payeur
On a night his team got what he called a “greasy win,” Matt Vela wasn’t shy about his team’s feeling towards its conquered opponent.
“They’re very chippy and they’ve got an attitude we don’t like,” he said after the Fort Frances Lakers’ 2-1 win over the Dryden Ice Dogs in the back half of their home-and-home series Tuesday night at “The Duke” (Couchiching Arena).
“They try and outman us, and [tick] us off,” Vela added about the Ice Dogs, who had beaten the Lakers 4-1 on Saturday in Dryden.
“We’re very skilled but we wanted to show them we can be a physically tough team, as well.”
Vela was called for slashing that led to a second-period melee that saw Gordon Campbell go after Dryden’s Drew Walske, who had taken a running leap and crashed into a Lakers’ player standing near the boards.
Campbell and Walske both were tossed for fighting, with Campbell getting an extra minor for instigating.
But instead of going on the defensive while killing the double minor, the Lakers capitalized on two short-handed breakaways within a minute of each other to take the lead.
Lucas DeBenedet walked in alone and beat Tate Sproxton—the SIJHL’s reigning player-of-the-week—five-hole.
Then just 30 seconds later, Cody Antonini got a gift-wrapped pass from an Ice Dogs’ defender just outside Dryden’s blueline and, with everyone else going towards the Lakers’ zone, had his own breakaway chance.
Antonini froze Sproxton before whipping a shot stick side for the go-ahead marker.
“With ‘Gordo’ [Campbell] dropping the mitts, that got everyone fired up on the bench,” noted Antonini, whose squad trailed 1-0 on a first-period goal by Jonathan Philley just as Lakers’ defenceman Nick Minerva’s holding penalty expired.
“We knew we needed to take the next step,” added Antonini.
“I saw the opening. That’s all I’m going to say,” chuckled the defenceman in an effort to protect his trade secret ahead of a possible semi-final match-up next month between the first-place Lakers (33-9-0-1) and fourth-place Dryden (23-19-0-2).
Lakers’ head coach and general manager Wayne Strachan liked how his squad walked the line between standing up for one another and going over it into undisciplined play.
“I think we got smarter as the game went on,” said Strachan, whose team now leads the second-place Thunder Bay North Stars (24-19-4) by 15 points with four games in hand.
“A coach is never going to tell anyone to go out and hurt somebody,” he stressed.
“But I think later in the game, we did a good job pressuring them and finishing our checks.
“We showed another side of our game and we’re not going to back down from the way they play against us,” Strachan noted.
The Lakers outshot Dryden 39-21, with Nathan Park making 20 saves for the victory.
Sproxton was perfect besides his breakaway setbacks but still took the loss in a 37-stop performance.
Fort Frances next will face the third-place Minnesota Iron Rangers (22-15-6) on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at the Ice For Kids Arena.
