Staff
The Fort Frances Lakers have the Dryden Ice Dogs wishing they had a do-over.
On the same night the Fort William North Stars rolled over the Sioux Lookout Flyers 8-1 to sweep their semi-final series, the Lakers gutted out a 4-2 win here to even their best-of-seven showdown with the Ice Dogs at 2-2.
Game 5 goes tomorrow night in Dryden, with Game 6 back here on Friday night.
Game 7, if necessary, would be played in Dryden on Saturday night.
The winner advances to the SIJHL final against Fort William.
After winning the round-robin tournament against the North Stars and Flyers while Fort Frances was facing the K&A Wolverines in the first-round, the Ice Dogs won the chance to choose their opponent in the round semi-finals, which seemed to strengthen the Lakers’ resolve.
Justin Erhart opened the scoring just 2:05 into last night’s game for his fifth goal in the last four games.
But Dryden struck quickly before the period was out,.
Tanner Harms batted home a puck that popped up in front of Lakers’ goalie Jameson Shortreed at 17:21 before Justin Lightfoot was able to get in alone, deke out Shortreed, and deposit a backhand a mere 1:27 later.
The lead didn’t last long into the second, however, as Cody Hasbargen one-timed a point shot past the glove of Ice Dogs’ goalie Josh Baker for his second of the playoffs.
The teams then remained deadlocked for the better part of 30 minutes until the home side broke through about halfway into the third.
Over than span, Shortreed was solid when necessary, picking up a screened point shot by Jon Mitchell to keep the Lakers even.
The effort was rewarded when assistant captain Blake Boaz put Fort Frances ahead for good, corralling a feed from Mike Jourdain down low, executing a 180-degreee spin, and plugging a close-range shot over Baker’s glove.
Henry Gutierrez added an insurance goal with 3.5 seconds on the clock, skidding a puck from near the Lakers’ bench into the empty net.
Shortreed made 24 saves to earn the win while Baker countered with 19 for the Ice Dogs.
