Joey Payeur
The previous weekend, it was the three-goal lead causing headaches for the Fort Frances Lakers.
This past Saturday, the local Junior ‘A’ squad kicked that number up a notch but still managed to hit the afterburners when it needed to.
The Lakers (2-1-0-1) blew a 4-0 lead, then scored three times in the final seven minutes to earn a 7-4 win over the Dryden Ice Dogs (3-2) in SIJHL action at the Ice For Kids Arena.
“We had a couple of defensive breakdowns . . . that gave them a little momentum,” noted Lakers’ head coach and general manager Wayne Strachan, whose team ended up splitting the home-and-home series with the Ice Dogs, who currently are ranked 10th in the CJHL top 20.
“They got in our face and took us off our game,” Strachan said. “We took some bad penalties. . . .
“But we did a good job to hang on in the third and we worked hard to end the game on a positive note,” he added.
With the win, the Lakers held onto third place in the SIJHL and only are one point back of the league leaders—the Thunder Bay North Stars (3-0) and the Ice Dogs.
Kevin Kurm notched the game-winner at 13:48 of the third, taking a pass from SIJHL scoring leader Lucas DeBenedet (11 points) and unleashing a bullet that got just under the crossbar and past Dryden goalie Robert Kopytek-MacKenzie (33 saves).
“Coach told us the glove side was [Kopytek-MacKenzie’s] weak spot,” Kurm said about his second goal of the season.
The Lakers then put the game away in the final two minutes with a pair of goals in 35 seconds.
Dryden defenceman Braeden Foote made a terrible pass from behind his net, which Bryson Jasper gloved down at the top of the right face-off circle and promptly ripped home a shot at 18:27 for his fourth of the year.
DeBenedet put the icing on the cake—cutting to the middle in front of the Ice Dogs’ goal and firing the puck in just before getting knocked over for his second of the night and fifth of the young season.
John Dora connected on the power play at 10:24 of the opening period for his first goal of the season before DeBenedet, Bryce Lipinski (second), and Riley Daly (first) built the four-goal lead by 3:07 of the middle frame.
The Ice Dogs didn’t roll over and play dead, though.
Zach Kercz, Rory Court, and Chris Sitco beat Ryan Ferguson (21 saves) before the period was out, with Tyson Holder then netting home the equalizer 49 seconds into the third.
The Lakers finished 1-for-3 with the man advantage while Dryden ended up 1-for-4.
Saturday’s game also featured the debut of defenceman Kyle Lipinski, who was picked up by the Lakers late last week.
The 19-year-old from Grande Prairie, Alta. joined older twin brothers, Bryce and Lyndon, in the lineup and assisted on Daly’s second-period goal.
“I was pretty excited when I found out [about his acquisition],” said the younger Lipinski, who was dealt from the SJHL’s Humboldt Broncos to the La Ronge Ice Wolves in training camp before being released.
“It was my first game of the year, so I was a little rusty,” he admitted.
“But it got better towards the end.”
The Lakers next travel to Hoyt Lakes, Mn. tomorrow night to take on the fourth-place Minnesota Iron Rangers (2-1) to begin another home-and-home series.
The Iron Rangers, who beat the expansion English River Miners 3-1 at home Saturday, then will be here this Friday (Oct. 4) at 7:30 p.m.
