Staff
The Fort Frances Lakers were able to put any thoughts of going on an early-season slide to bed Saturday night.
After dropping a second-straight game Friday night by a 4-2 score to the visiting Thief River Falls Norskies, the Lakers rebounded in a big way with a 5-0 shutout of the Minnesota Iron Rangers (0-5-0-0) in Hoyt Lakes.
Reece Hopfner scored his first goal as a Laker and added two assists, while Matt Booth earned his first SIJHL shutout, to pace Fort Frances to victory.
The Lakers (4-2-0-0) opened the scoring two-and-a-half minutes into the game on a tally by Dane Bateman.
MacKenzie Flett’s fourth marker of the season doubled the Lakers’ lead later in the frame.
Fort Frances then tacked on two more goals to go up by four after 40 minutes, with Hopfner notching his first SIJHL marker at 8:28 before teammate Colton Bodnar converted during a man advantage at 15:58.
Jake Clendenning capped the scoring in the third with his first SIJHL tally.
Kirk Coppock also dished out two assists to help the cause.
Booth turned aside all 24 shots fired his way to record the shutout while Synjen Amende faced 39 attempts in defeat.
On Friday night, Alec Daman notched a pair of goals to lift the fourth-place Norskies (3-3-0-0) to victory at the Ice For Kids Arena.
Daman opened the scoring 9:27 into the first period when he capitalized on a Lakers’ turnover at their own blueline.
He then darted in alone on goal and promptly sniped one over Booth to make it 1-0.
Daman then doubled the Norskies’ lead six minutes into the second when he finished off a feed from teammate Riley Bergland.
The Lakers cut into the deficit before the frame was over when Isaac Baron notched his first SIJHL goal at 11:11 with a shot that went off the crossbar and in.
But Thief River Falls regained their two-goal cushion when Bergland connected on a man advantage at 5:21.
Shortly after leaving the penalty box, Noah Loveday brought the Lakers back to within a goal with just over three minutes to go in regulation when he darted down the left side and fired a rocket top-right corner past Norskies’ goalie Bailey Schmitz.
The Lakers then had a glorious chance from in close to tie it but were denied on an excellent pad save by Schmitz.
That save seemed to spark the Norskies, who countered on an effort by Bryce Johnson 56 seconds later as he wristed one home from the slot that beat Booth to cap the scoring.
Schmitz finished with 27 stops to earn the win while Booth faced 31 attempts in defeat.
The Lakers next are in action this Friday and Saturday when they play back-to-back road games against the third-place Red Lake Miners (3-1-0-0).
Both games will start at 7:30 p.m.
