Joey Payeur
Wyatt Cota was getting no end of grief from his teammates for his stick selection.
But it was Cota who got the last laugh in a way the English River Miners found none too amusing.
The 20-year-old Kingston product netted a natural hat trick Friday night to key the Fort Frances Lakers to a 4-0 win over the visiting Miners.
Not a bad night’s work for someone who, wanting to save his stash of regular sticks for the playoffs, just grabbed whichever one was available.
“It’s actually pretty funny . . . that stick was in the coach’s office,” chuckled Cota, who led the Lakers in goals (28), assists (40), and points (68) during the regular season.
“The guys were making fun of me for using a yellow stick,” he added.
“I guess it turned out to be pretty lucky.”
The Lakers, who finished atop the standings with a 43-11-0-2 record, now will have about two weeks off while waiting to see who they’ll face in the SIJHL semi-finals.
Fort Frances will meet the winner of the best-of-five first-round showdown between the last-place Miners (10-41-5) and the fourth-place North Stars (27-25-4), which began last night in Thunder Bay.
After a scoreless first period Friday night, the Lakers opened the scoring at 4:24 of the second when Matt Vela one-timed a pass from Roshen Jaswall past Miners’ goalie Greg Harney.
The Lakers—and especially Cota—then found their rhythm from the get-go after the second intermission.
Dylan Kooner stole the puck from Miners’ forward Elias Chaulk at the English River blueline, then feathered a pass over a stick to hit Cota in full stride.
Cota executed a nifty deke before sliding it past Harney to make it 2-0 only 57 seconds into the period.
“It’s nice to score on a breakaway,” said Cota.
“I’ve missed on a couple of those this year.”
The Lakers went up by three at 15:35 when Cota took a cross-ice feed from Lucas DeBenedet and hammered a shot that deflected in off an English River stick.
As Lakers’ P.A. announcer Jim Fowler still was announcing that goal, Cota carried the puck into the Miners’ zone, veered sharply to the middle, and unleashed a wrister from just above the face-off circle that beat Harney just 27 seconds later.
Nathan Park capped off a stellar regular season with 25 saves for his third shutout—making him the outright league leader in that category, as well as in GAA (1.92) and save percentage (.932).
“I felt the best I have in a while out there,” noted Park, who went 14-4 after joining the Lakers in mid-December from the Selkirk Steelers (MJHL).
“The last couple I have not played my greatest, so tonight was good for my confidence.
“The team came out a little slow and not pressuring the puck the way we usually do,” Park added.
“But as the game went on, we got better.”
Meanwhile, it was a whirlwind day for forward Tyler VanUden, who made his junior debut with Lakers’ forwards Mason Meyer, Colton Spicer, Nolan Ross, and Donovan Cousineau all out with injuries.
VanUden spent the week in Pembroke/Petawawa with the Muskie boys’ hockey team, which reached the quarter-finals of the OFSAA ‘A/AA’ championships before being eliminated last Thursday morning.
A 21-hour bus ride had VanUden back in town at 10 a.m., with the Grade 12 player receiving a text from the Lakers by noon.
“I was undecided whether to play or not,” VanUden admitted.
“I didn’t know if I could go because I was pretty fatigued from the trip.
“But J.D. [Muskie head coach Jamie Davis] said, ‘Why not?’”
“I just wanted to keep my feet moving throughout the game,” said VanUden.
“You can’t just go through the motions out there,” he stressed.
Lakers’ head coach and general manager Wayne Strachan liked what he saw from the high-schooler.
“Tyler got an opportunity and played well,” he remarked.
“He had a few real good opportunities around the net and kept his game simple, up and down the wing, and showed he can play at this level,” added Strachan.
“It was good for him to get his feet wet and we thank him for helping us.”
Strachan, meantime, was happy with his team’s regular season, which was highlighted by a 13-game winning streak from Dec. 6-Jan. 28.
“I think we can be proud of ourselves and now we look forward to what we can accomplish in the playoffs,” Strachan said about his team’s quest for a second-straight Bill Salonen Cup.
“Since November, when we cut down our lineup and went with the guys we believed would be here in the end, the team came together a lot,” he noted.
