Joey Payeur
The slow starts hadn’t cost the Fort Frances Lakers yet.
But a subpar finish last night did.
The Dryden GM Ice Dogs scored three times in the third period to beat the visiting Lakers 4-2 in an early-season first-place battle of undefeated teams in the SIJHL.
“We are shooting ourselves in the foot right now by not giving ourselves the opportunity to put 60 minutes of hockey into our games at this point,” said Lakers’ head coach and general manager Wayne Strachan, whose team has yet to score in the first period through three games.
“We need someone in the group to step up and lead at this time, and get the locker-room focused for the beginnings of games,” he stressed.
“In the end, mistakes we have addressed came back to haunt us and were the main reason for losing the hockey game,” Strachan added.
One of those mistakes came on the game-winning goal by Dryden’s Derek McPhail at 14:36 to put the Ice Dogs up 3-2.
“It was a soft turnover just outside our blueline when we should have used the boards,” said Strachan.
“And then Devin [Tappenden] makes the first save and they have two guys at the net who are not picked up and, bang, a rebound goal is in,” he fumed.
“Both things we have worked on in practice, talked about ,and have tried to get through to the players about.”
Chris Sitko added an empty-net goal with 53 seconds left on a play Strachan thought should have been whistled down beforehand due to a high stick.
Dryden’s Jonathan Philley had opened the scoring at 1:52 of the first.
Dylan Kooner replied for the Lakers at 7:14 of the second period with his second of the season—the Lakers’ only power-play goal of the night in six chances after clicking at a 58 percent clip coming into the game.
Cole Golka scored on a 2-on-1 just nine seconds into the third for the Ice Dogs but Matt Vela tied it with his first of the campaign at 7:15.
Josh Martin and Tappenden each made 27 saves.
In related news, Colton Spicer, who assisted on Kooner’s goal, was honoured earlier in the day with the first SIJHL player-of-the-week award for this season.
The 19-year-old Fort Frances native led all scorers with a goal and four assists in two games last week.
Meanwhile, Lakers’ blueliner Ryan Reeves was back in the lineup after leaving Sunday’s game against the Minnesota Iron Rangers with a leg injury.
Strachan said the team will be adding a defenceman to the roster in the coming days, but didn’t want to identify the player until his paperwork has been processed by the league.
The Lakers will suit up again Saturday at 7:30 p.m. when the Thunder Bay North Stars make a return visit to the Ice For Kids Arena.
