Jamie Mountain
Things appeared to be going well for the Fort Frances Lakers heading into Saturday night’s showdown against the Thief River Falls Norskies at the Ice For Kids Arena.
The Lakers had snapped a three-game losing streak last Wednesday with a 4-3 shootout win over the host Norskies, then won their second-straight Friday night after blanking the visiting Minnesota Iron Rangers 4-0.
But a lacklustre effort offensively the following night ultimately led to a 3-1 setback to the Norskies here.
“From my perspective, we didn’t put enough hard minutes into the hockey game,” Lakers’ head coach/general manager Wayne Strachan said after Saturday’s loss.
“We didn’t have pressure on them like we’re capable of,” he noted. “We didn’t put enough pucks to the net and test their goaltending.
“It was just a game where we were here [at home] and kind of beat ourselves,” Strachan added.
“We never gave ourselves a chance to win the hockey game.”
As it turns out, the fifth-place Lakers (7-8-0-0) will get to regroup this week against those same two teams.
The Lakers hit the road to face the last-place Iron Rangers (2-13-0-0) on Friday night at the Hoyt Lakes Arena before returning home Saturday to once again host the third-place Norskies (6-6-2-1) at 7:30 p.m. at the Ice For Kids Arena.
“We need to continue to work on our defensive game,” Strachan said.
“We make a lot of little mistakes that lead to breakdowns in games and through the last two weeks, we’ve done a lot of skill work on angling and taking the body and guys coming back and picking up their man,” he noted.
“We need to continue to grow as a team in that manner,” Strachan stressed.
“You see the mistakes throughout the game and you know, it’s not just one or two guys, it’s the majority of our team right now and that’s something that we need to shore up.
“Going into Friday, we need to have the mentality that we’re definitely going down there to get two points,” he remarked.
It was a sluggish game for the Lakers this past Saturday as Michael Moreira’s first SIJHL goal 5:16 into the third period proved to be the game-winner as the Norskies claimed the road victory.
After rallying late for a win in Dryden the previous night, the Norskies kept it going here as Boe Bjorge opened the scoring with his ninth goal of the season midway through the first frame.
The Lakers tied it with the lone marker of the middle stanza when Nick Lucas beat Norskies’ goalie Fletcher Bolda for his ninth of the season.
The marker also increased Lucas’ team lead in points to 20 in 15 games–eight ahead of Fort native Brett Hahkala.
“I think my line really battled,” said Lucas, who is serving as the Lakers’ captain this season. “We [just] couldn’t really get the puck bouncing our way this time.
“Overall, I think we had a lot left in the tank,” he added. “We just didn’t play too well and we didn’t give it our full effort.”
Moreira made it 2-1 in the third when he corralled the puck just inside the Lakers’ blueline before toe-dragging around a defender and snapping a shot top shelf.
Defenceman Jake Eischen then iced it with an empty-netter in the final seconds.
Bolda made 27 saves to earn the win while Jacob Gnidziejko stopped 31 in taking the loss.
On Friday night, Tyler Szturm turned aside all 24 shots he faced to notch his first SIJHL shutout against the visiting Iron Rangers.
It was just his second start of the season after missing time with a foot/ankle injury.
The Lakers needed only 27 seconds to open the scoring in
