Joey Payeur
The Fort Frances Lakers wrapped up their second-straight regular-season title Friday night with an 8-3 victory over the English River Miners in Ear Falls.
But instead of having a letdown here Saturday, the Lakers (37-9-0-1) took it to the undermanned Thunder Bay North Stars in the form of an 8-1 blowout.
“We’ve got a goal accomplished that we set at the beginning of the year to be regular-season champions again and have home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs,” noted Lakers’ head coach and general manager Wayne Strachan.
“Now we want to try and tie our record for the most wins in one season that we had last year [46], but we’ll need to win out to do it,” he added.
“It’s a task that if we put our minds to it to achieve, we can do it, although we play some good teams in the next three weeks and it won’t be easy,” Strachan said.
Friday marked the SIJHL debuts of Fort native and former Muskie David Pryde and fellow forward Jack Bernie from Kenora.
They both were recalled from the Kenora Thistles (Manitoba Midget ‘AAA’ Hockey League) for the weekend games due to the Lakers’ quickly-lengthening injury list.
With Matt Vela and Nolan Ross joined in sick bay by Donovan Cousineau, and Strachan resting banged-up forward Wyatt Cota, the newcomers made an immediate impact.
Pryde scored a hat trick against the Miners on Friday night, including the last two only 15 seconds apart in the third period.
Bernie had an assist in the game while Miles Nolan added a pair of goals.
Dylan Robertson, Marco Romano, and A.J. Kapcheck also tallied for the Lakers.
Pierce Dushenko made 30 saves for the victory.
On Saturday, the Lakers led 3-1 after the first on goals by Nick Minerva, Colton Spicer (power play), and Lucas DeBenedet.
Then they exploded for five unanswered goals in the second against a North Stars’ team that only could ice 12 skaters.
“I’m not one to make excuses but the last couple of weeks have been really hard on the hockey team,” said head coach Jeremy Adduono, whose squad now has dropped six of its last eight games.
“We’ve just barely had enough players to be able to legally play and some of the guys in the lineup are injured right now,” he noted.
“I feel for the kids.”
Robertson, Bryson Jasper, Romano, DeBenedet, and Cody Antonini were the second-period goal scorers.
Bradley Belisle had the lone goal against Nathan Park, who turned aside 33 shots to improve to 11-1 on the season.
The Lakers hit the road for their next game Wednesday night against the Dryden GM Ice Dogs.
Then they’ll return home the following night to face Minnesota at 7:30 p.m. at the Ice For Kids Arena.
