The Fort Frances Lakers are experiencing their best season in recent memory and a portion of that success can be attributed to the goaltending tandem of Gunner Paradis of Thunder Bay and Nolan Koethler (pronounced Ket-ler) of Drayton Valley, AB. The pair have helped the Lakers to fifth in the league standings with a 20-16-1-5 record, with one overtime loss and five ties (This record includes three forfeits by the now-dormant Kenora Islanders), with eight games remaining in the regular season.
Last season the Lakers finished with a 12-31-4-2 record, though this year the league has introduced a seven minute four-on-four overtime with the added possibility of ties instead of going to a shootout.
When second-year Laker Paradis first saw rookie Koethler at Lakers camp last fall, he was surprised at what he saw, he was even more surprised to learn that Koethler was going into his first year of Junior at 18 years old, while Paradis, who only saw six games in net as the third goalie for the Lakers last year, is in his final season at the junior level.
“Nolan was lighting it up in tryouts and I honestly thought he was older than he was, I didn’t know how young he was,” Paradis said. “I was pretty surprised, but happy with where [GM] Luke (Judson) and [Head Coach] Tyler (Miller) went with the goalies this year.”
The tandem first came together when they realized that they’re exactly two years apart, sharing the same August 1 birthday. Since the season began, they have essentially split the workload down the middle.
“We’ve pretty much split the whole season down the middle so far,” Koethler said. “He’s been playing lots lately, I think we’ve got a great balance going.”
“For sure,” Paradis agreed. “We’re such a good tandem, and we’re really good friends. We communicate really well and help each other out with the negatives and positives in the season.”
“We push each other really hard in practice,” Koethler added.
“I’m always watching to see what he does better than me,” Paradis said. “And the other way around and try to help each other.”
“You can always learn just by watching,” Koethler said. “It’s always fun to try and one up the other guy in practice.”
Koethler says they didn’t hit it off right away but it didn’t take long.
“The first time I met ‘Guns’ he was super quiet, but the next practice it was just us in the room and he was trying on my gear because we both have different setups. That’s probably one of my favourite memories, when we first started talking we clicked real quick.”
Paradis says sharing hotel rooms on the road this season has been fun as well.
“On the road me and Nolan share a room every single road trip,” he said. “So there’s lots of team bonding there. We’re always like watching TV, watching NHL games, bouncing things off of each other, we have lots of fun.”
As of this writing Paradis is tied for the SIJHL lead in save percentage with a 0.931 and is in sixth for goals against average at 2.70 among 13 qualified goalies.
The Lakers have eight regular season games remaining in the season and will look to secure their position in the standings with hopes of an easier opening round playoff opponent. The Lakers’ next home game is March 7 against Kam River with their final home game of the season coming against the Thunder Bay North Stars on March 14.
