Lucas Punkari
The Fort Frances Lakers’ season hangs in the balance heading into Game 5 of their best-of-seven SIJHL semi-final series with the Dryden Ice Dogs tonight at the Ice For Kids Arena here.
Dryden grabbed a commanding 3-1 series lead with a 5-3 victory on home ice last night—and now have three cracks to send the Lakers packing.
“Obviously our backs are against the wall and it’ll be up to the guys to decide if they want to keep playing this year or hang up their skates and head home by Monday,” Lakers’ head coach Wayne Strachan said.
“I thought, personally, that we deserved a little bit of a better fate last night as for the most part we out-played and out-chanced them, but we just didn’t capitalize on our chances,” he noted.
Once again, the Lakers’ usually potent power play ran into some difficulties—finishing the game going 1-for-7 with the man advantage and now are just 3-for-33 on the power play so far in the semi-finals.
“We just can’t seem to get our power play going and that’s been the story of this round so far,” Strachan remarked.
“We had a few more chances last night with it, but when he had our chances with a two-on-one or just walking to the net, we didn’t take advantage of them,” he stressed.
Alex Galbraith led the Ice Dogs with a pair of goals while post-season scoring leader Thomas Greene found the back of the net on a penalty shot in the second period.
He also added an assist.
“Alex really stepped up his game and he was a big difference-maker at the end of the game, especially with his physical play, which is what we need from a guy like him,” said Ice Dogs’ coach Clint Mylymok.
“I thought Fort played another really good game, but in the end I think we did a better job and just bearing down and making sure that we were focused in the scoring areas,” he added.
Ice Dogs’ goalie Ian Perrier bounced back from his first loss of the playoffs (a 3-2 setback to the Lakers on Tuesday night), turning aside 27 shots to earn the win in Game 4.
As for the Lakers, their offensive leader was Jace Baldwin, who had a goal and an assist in his return to the lineup last night after serving a one-game suspension following his ejection from Game 2 here Sunday night.
Blake Boaz and Matthew Caulfield also scored for the Lakers.
The Lakers have to win tonight’s game, which gets underway at 7:30 p.m., to force a Game 6 in Dryden on Monday night.
A Game 7, if necessary, would be back here Tuesday night (March 29).
Meanwhile, the regular-season champion Wisconsin Wilderness can clinch a spot in the SIJHL final tonight in Game 4 of their semi-final showdown with the defending league champion Thunder Bay North Stars.
The Wilderness jumped out to a 3-0 series lead following a 1-0 victory in Game 3 last night at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay.
Defenceman Steve Hughes scored the decisive goal near the halfway point of the third period while Wilderness goalie John McLean made 22 saves to earn his second shutout of the post-season.
