Lucas Punkari
They won the season series by an 8-4 margin.
And after two games of their best-of-seven semi-final showdown, the Dryden Ice Dogs are continuing their dominance over the Fort Frances Lakers.
Heading into Game 3 last night at the Memorial Arena in Dryden, the Ice Dogs held a 2-0 series lead over the Lakers thanks to 4-0 and 3-2 wins Friday and Sunday nights at the Ice For Kids Arena here.
“There’s a history with these guys last year as we went undefeated in the regular season against them and only lost two games to them in the playoffs,” Ice Dogs’ goalie Ian Perrier noted.
“We have a lot of guys that came back from last year and who wanted to keep on rolling.
“And while I wasn’t here for last season’s run, I just took it to heart and I’ve tried to do the best that I can,” he added.
For the Lakers, the Ice Dogs have been the monkey they’ve been unable to shake off of their backs this season as they sported a .500 or better record against the rest of the six-team loop.
“I don’t know what it is,” Lakers’ head coach Wayne Strachan admitted.
“But whatever that block is that we have against this team, we can’t seem to overcome it and it’s hurt us all season and so far in the playoffs.”
One of the major issues in the first two games for the Lakers is their normally potent power play, which has gone for a combined total of 1-for-18.
“It’s probably what’s cost us in this series so far,” Strachan remarked.
“We’ve definitely had our chances, but it just comes down to our compete level.
“So far their four guys on the penalty kill have been out-working our five guys on the power play and that just can’t happen,” he stressed.
While Ice Dogs’ head coach Clint Mylymok has been impressed by his team’s work on the penalty kill, he said his team needs to avoid taking penalties and giving the Lakers’ power-play unit a chance to get rolling.
“We need to stay out of the darn box,” Mylymok said.
“We’ve allowed way too many power plays and that is always a key in any playoff series,” he remarked.
“They have the best power play in the league for a reason and the more opportunities that we give them, it will allow [them] to gain more confidence out there and get rolling,” he warned.
Trailing 2-1 margin at the halfway point of the second period Sunday night, the Lakers kicked themselves into gear on offence throughout the next 20 minutes.
In fact, it looked as if the Lakers had tied the game up, not once but twice, in an 11-second span during a power play in the third frame—only to have both markers waved off.
“He [referee Duane Turriff] said that on the first one [scored by Jace Baldwin], he was yelling at one of our players to step out of the crease and when it [the puck] went in, the ref said part of his body was still in there,” Strachan recalled.
“On the second goal [scored by Cody Hasbargen], the ref said that as the puck hit our player’s chest and as he was heading towards the net, his momentum led him into going into the net and he ended up knocking it off before the puck had gone in.
“Whether or not they were the right calls, we just have to live with it and forget about these first two games before we head up to Dryden,” Strachan stressed.
With the momentum having swung back into their favour, the Ice Dogs sealed the victory a few minutes later when forward Alex Galbraith rushed up the boards and made a slick move on Lakers’ goalie Tyler Ampe to find the back of the net.
“He’s a powerful kid who just wants to go to the net,” Mylymok noted.
“His goal was a power forward-type move, which is something that he’s shown all year and, as a coach, you just love to see that stuff,” he added.
In Friday night’s 4-0 shutout over the Lakers, the big story for the Ice Dogs was Perrier, who turned aside all 22 shots that came his way.
Perrier has been, far and away, the top goalie in the post-season so far, heading into last night’s game in Dryden with a perfect 6-0 record and miniscule 0.96 goals against average.
“This season has been my best so far,” said Perrier, a native of Whitehorse.
“I’ve been playing pretty hard all year, but I haven’t really changed the way I play my game or anything like that,” he noted.
“I just try to go out there and do my thing.”
“He’s been our superstar all year,” lauded Galbraith.
“We’re just going to keep riding him to the very end of the season because he’s the reason that we’ve been able to get this far,” Galbraith stressed.
Meanwhile, Ampe had a rough outing Friday night—getting pulled in favour of Jameson Shortreed after surrendering four goals on 16 shots in just over 26-and-a-half minutes of work.
But despite Shortreed turning aside all 15 shots that came his way in a relief role, Strachan chose to back with his starter in Game 2 on Sunday—and Ampe responded with a 19-save performance that saw him make a number of key saves in the opening minutes.
“It was just a matter of him being there all year for us,” Strachan said of his decision.
“He’s only human and he’s done a great job for us all year, and as you saw tonight [Sunday] he played a really strong game once again,” Strachan noted.
With Game 4 slated for tomorrow night in Dryden, the Lakers are in a must-win mode if they want to return to the Ice For Kids Arena at least one more time for Game 5 on Friday night.
“Those are definitely our two biggest games of the season,” Lakers’ defenceman Morgan McNeill said of the two games in Dryden.
“I don’t think anybody predicated us to be in this position right now and we came in with better expectations for ourselves, especially after that last game against Wisconsin,” he noted.
“It’s a tough pill to swallow, but in our last regular-season game in Dryden, we had some good success so hopefully we can build off of that and put in a good effort,” McNeill added.
Meanwhile, the regular-season champion Wisconsin Wilderness hold a 2-0 series lead over the Thunder Bay North Stars, the defending league champs, after taking the first two games of their best-of-seven semi-final on the weekend in Spooner.
The series is set to resume tomorrow night when the North Starts host to the Wilderness at the Fort William Gardens.
