Mitch Calvert
The Fort Frances Lakers will be looking to notch their first home-ice win of the season tonight when they host the Fort William North Stars in the opener of a two-game series at the Ice For Kids Arena.
The Lakers (2-5-2) lost 3-2 in overtime to the Dryden Ice Dogs on Tuesday night to drop to 0-3-1 here so far.
After a scoreless first period, the visitors got on the board first on a goal by Ben McClellan.
Colton Kennedy replied less than a minute later, snapping home a power-play goal from the top of the right circle to knot the score at 1-1.
The Ice Dogs regained the lead before the end of the period, however, when Tanner Harms finished off a tic-tac-toe play with the man advantage.
It remained 2-1 until just past the midway point of the third when the Lakers struck shorthanded.
Dryden’s Jon Mitchell misplayed a bouncing puck at the blueline, sending Blake Boaz off to the races with just one man to beat.
Boaz got the defender to bite, then saucered a pass across to Cam Gross, who went in alone and deked to the backhand before
sliding it past Ice Dogs’ goalie Curtis Barker.
The comeback salvaged one point for the home team, but the visitors took the extra point when Matthew Caulfield deflected a Mitchell point shot up and over Lakers’ goalie Jameson Shortreed two minutes into overtime.
“It was a good game, the boys battled hard,” Shortreed said.
“It’s always tough to lose in OT, but we just had a couple tough breaks and they got the bounces,” he added.
The Lakers not only lost on the scoreboard Tuesday night as standout rookie Byron Katapaytuk fell into the boards awkwardly in the second period and is expected to be out at least two weeks with a lower body injury.
The task doesn’t get any easier from here, with the 7-1 North Stars coming to town tonight and tomorrow at 7:30 p.m.
Devlin’s Jordan Davis currently is second in the SIJHL scoring race with 14 points.
“I think if we keep playing how we’ve been playing, we should do all right,” Shortreed remarked.
“The boys are really working in front of me and I think we have a good shot at taking four points.”
In related news, the Lakers added 19-year-old forward Dwight Lee of Vancouver, B.C. to their roster.
Lee had six points in 38 games with the Seguin Bruins of the OJHL last season.
“[Lee] will add some offence up front, and more than likely play on one of our top lines if he comes in and plays to his expectations,” Lakers’ head coach Wayne Strachan said.
