Lucas Punkari
After being dormant for the first four games of their SIJHL semi-final series with the Dryden Ice Dogs, the Fort Frances Lakers’ power-play unit came alive when they needed it the most.
The Lakers went three-for-seven with the man advantage in Game 5 of the best-of-seven showdown here Friday night en route to a 6-3 victory and a trip back to Dryden for Game 6 tonight.
A Lakers’ victory would force a seventh and deciding game tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. at the Ice For Kids Arena.
“Before tonight, we were trying to get things done in the first 10 seconds instead of using the entire time on the power play,” Lakers’ coach Wayne Strachan noted.
“We talked about trying to calm down while moving the puck, and getting traffic to the net was one of our biggest key as we had guys going to the net all the time and we were getting in [Ice Dogs’ goalie Ian] Perrier’s face for once.
“As a result, I wouldn’t call them pretty goals, but they were definitely goals that we needed,” Strachan added.
On the other hand, Ice Dogs’ coach Clint Mylymok was
concerned with his team’s penalty issues, preaching with his team to stay out of the “sin bin” throughout the game.
“You can’t come into someone’s rink and try to close out a series when you give up two goals during separate five-on-threes,” Mylymok stressed.
“In a game that means that much, you need to kill those off, and you need to stay out of the box, and that’s what we fell into too many times,” he reasoned.
Lakers’ captain Tyler Stevenson and Henry Gutierrez led the way offensively with a pair of goals each while Byron Katapaytuk and Jaret Leclair both had two-point outings to help the cause.
“That was a lot of fun,” Stevenson said after the game.
“All year long, we’ve always come out hard when our back is against the wall like that, and this game was huge for us,” he remarked.
“It’s very important to get the win here, but this is just one of the three that we need,” Gutierrez said after Friday night’s triumph.
“We’re glad to get this one obviously, but we need to do it again on Monday,” he stressed.
Awaiting the winner is the regular-season champion Wisconsin Wilderness, who ousted the defending SIJHL champion Thunder Bay North Stars by a score of 4-3 in Game 4 of their best-of-seven semi-final Friday night at the Fort William Gardens.
SIJHL rookie-of-the-year Austin Adduono led the Wilderness with a pair of goals, including the game-winner at the 11:53 mark of the third period.
