Staff
Home cooking had been the order of the day so far in the season series between the Fort Frances Lakers and Thunder Bay North Stars.
The Lakers changed the menu last night.
Wyatt Cota and Bowen Alcock each scored twice as Fort Frances beat the host North Stars 5-3 in an battle for first place in the SIJHL standings.
The Lakers (16-5-1) won their sixth-straight and became the first road team to win a game between the two squads in five meetings this season, ending the North Stars’ 10-game home winning streak in the process.
Cota had the lone goal of the first period, then scored his 10th of the year early in the second to tie him with Mason Meyer and Colton Spicer for the team lead in points with 25.
Alcock then added a power-play goal to make it 3-0 after 40 minutes.
Thunder Bay (14-8-1) fought back in the third with three-straight goals by Bradley Belisle, Brandon Wolframe, and Cashen Tighe.
But in what’s becoming a good habit for him, Alcock notched his fourth game-winning goal of the season during a Lakers’ power play.
It was Alcock’s eight goal of the campaign, and third in his last two games since being put on a line with newly-arrived Donovan Cousineau and Marco Romano.
Dylan Kooner tacked on his fourth of the season as insurance for the Lakers just over a minute later.
Devin Tappenden had one of his best games of the season with 40 saves to win his fifth-straight outing to improve to 9-4.
Eric Mann had 31 saves in a losing cause.
A night earlier, the Lakers overcame a listless first period to score seven goals in the final 40 minutes to beat the visiting Dryden GM Ice Dogs 7-4.
It was a truly team-wide effort as the Lakers got goals from seven different players and had 16 of their 18 skaters register at least one point.
After falling behind 1-0 on Anthony Filoso’s first-period goal, Fort Frances erupted for four goals before the 10-minute mark of the second.
A.J. Kapcheck and Aaron Wesley-Chisel scored to chase Ice Dogs’ starter Tate Sproxton from the net.
Matt Vela and Cousineau, in the Fort native’s first game back with the team this season, subsequently beat back-up goalie Josh Martin to make it 4-1.
Dryden (9-11-2) recovered from the blitzkrieg by calling time-out and then getting goals from Ryan Hron and Cole Golka within the next three minutes to trim the lead to 4-3.
Alcock made good on a power-play early in the third, but that was countered by Golka’s second of the night and league-high 17th of the season.
The Lakers’ big guns put the game away after that, however.
Lucas DeBenedet reeled in Mason Meyer’s pass in front of the net and beat Martin five-hole.
Tappenden then sent the puck ahead to DeBenedet, who sliced through the heart of Dryden’s defence before passing off to Bryson Jasper, who tied Meyer for the team goal-scoring lead with his 12th.
A 29-save effort gave Tappenden the win while Martin took the loss for the struggling Ice Dogs, who lost their third-straight outing and sixth game of their last seven.
The Lakers visit Hoyt Lakes tomorrow night to face the Minnesota Iron Rangers (11-6-3).
Their next home game will be a rematch with Dryden this Tuesday (Dec. 2) at 7:30 p.m. at the Ice For Kids Arena.
