Dan Falloon
The Fort Frances Lakers could not pull off the upset for a second-straight time.
After edging the league-leading Fort William North Stars 2-1 here Dec. 18 in their last game before the Christmas break, the local SIJHL entry failed to turn the trick twice when they opened the 2010 portion of their schedule with a rematch against the North Stars on Saturday night in Thunder Bay.
Not appreciating the shock of losing to the league’s cellar-dwellers, the hosts rolled to an 11-3 romp at the Fort William Gardens.
“They came out like their normal selves,” noted Lakers’ head coach Wayne Strachan. “They’re a team that definitely plays physical and they like to pressure you, and that’s what they did to us.
“We never got a chance to get anything going,” he stressed. “We were flat.
“It was disappointing to see.
“When we did score, they were hard-fought goals, but they [Fort William] just kept coming and we weren’t at our best, for sure,” Strachan admitted.
The North Stars (29-2-0) responded less than a minute after two of the Lakers’ three goals, making it difficult for the visitors to gain any traction.
Adam Restoule opened the scoring at 9:57 of the first when he beat Lakers’ goalie Jameson Shortreed.
The Lakers responded as Morgan McNeill knotted the game with his second of the season at 16:07. But Fort William regained the lead less than a minute later on Ryan Pearson’s goal at 16:54.
Trevor Gamache then hit the scoresheet before the period was over to give Fort William a 3-1 lead at the first intermission.
The lead ballooned when Travis Savard tallied 6:15 into the second, but Colton Kennedy cut the gap to 4-2 when he netted his 23rd of the season past Fort William goalie Guillaume Piche.
But Savard, Riley Marsh, and Mitch Forbes tallied back-to-back-to-back for Fort William to pump their advantage to 7-2.
Justin Erhart’s second of the campaign brought the Lakers to within 7-3, but Kevin Hamel notched Fort William’s fifth goal of the period with just over a minute to go.
Strachan pulled Shortreed in the second intermission, putting in T.J. Pocock to mop up. He gave up goals to Kyle Breukleman, Pearson, and Sam Dubinsky to complete the rout.
“I talked to him [Shortreed] after the second period and told him it wasn’t his fault, and [that] we weren’t playing in front of him and doing our jobs,” recalled Strachan.
“He was really down,” Strachan added. “He said, ‘I didn’t play good’, and I just said, ‘Shake it off. We’ve got another game tomorrow [Sunday] and you’re starting, so start thinking about it.’
“He definitely came focused on Sunday [against the K&A Wolverines] and did a job he was capable of.”
Fort William outshot the Lakers by a 51-18 margin.
Against the Wolverines the following day across the city, the Lakers (8-20-4) were looking to right a wrong after they were embarrassed 8-2 here back on Dec. 12 thanks to a seven-goal outburst in the second period.
And the visitors did just that as Justin Erhart broke a 1-1 tie 6:50 into the third period en route to a 5-1 victory.
“I was a little nervous going in,” admitted Strachan. “I didn’t know what to expect, especially after getting a pretty good thumping.
“For the most part, we responded. Jameson was again sharp in the net,” Strachan added.
Strachan also pointed to the play of Cody Edwards and Jaret Leclair as catalysts in the turnaround. The pair had played together in previous games, but were split up and placed with new linemates.
“They’re more role players in our lineup,” noted Strachan. “They had been playing together and they were definitely an energy line, and a line that was good with speed and got the puck deep and created turnovers off the forecheck and caused havoc for the other team.
“Jaret played with the [Byron] Katapaytuk line [with Jordan Carne] and it really ignited Byron,” said Strachan. “It’s one of the better games he’s played in probably a month.
“We put Edwards with the [Blake] Boaz line [with Tim Hennessey] and he did a great job getting pucks out of our zone and the normal play that he always does, getting the puck deep and creating stuff for his linemates to get opportunities.”
While Edwards was held off the scoresheet Sunday, Leclair responded with a pair of assists.
Strachan plans to keep those same lines together for this week’s games—road re-matches with the Wolverines and North Stars tomorrow and Friday, respectively.
“We did have success with them, and we made some changes because some other players just didn’t work hard,” he explained.
“If you’re working hard and helping the team, you’re going to get your ice time, and if you’re being a little bit lazy or not playing to your potential, you’re not going to get the ice time that you probably think you deserve.
“These guys have earned to move up in the lineup and they’ve helped the two lines out,” he noted.
“We’ll run with it this week and see where it goes from there.”
Katapaytuk had his six-game point streak snapped in Saturday’s loss to Fort William but started a new string versus K&A, notching the lone goal of the first period assisted by Leclair and Ryan Presthus.
Jean-Luc Mercier evened the score at 2:11 of the second.
Strachan was unhappy with his team’s play for about half of the period, and Mercier’s goal came on a power play with Leclair serving a slashing minor.
“For some reason, we quit playing physical for about an eight-minute span and we took a few penalties—stick penalties that weren’t necessary,” he remarked.
After Erhart’s third goal of the season gave the Lakers the lead in the third, Conner Foster added some insurance with a power-play marker at 8:35.
Carne then made it 4-1 at 13:08 with his seventh of the year before Kennedy closed out the offensive outburst, beating Eric Swanick for his 24th.
Shortreed turned away 36 of 37 shots while Swanick stopped 26 of the 31 he faced.
The Lakers will face those same Wolverines tomorrow (Jan. 7) at 8 p.m. at the Thunder Bay Tournament Centre before finishing up a busy week against the North Stars the following night at 7:30 p.m.
Fort Frances won’t see home action until next Thursday (Jan. 14) at 7:30 p.m. when K&A invades the Ice For Kids Arena.
