Joey Payeur
Bad luck comes in threes.
Lose three leads in one game and one might as well be on high alert for black cats and broken mirrors.
The Fort Frances Lakers had their four-game winning streak snapped last night in a 5-4 shootout loss to the host Thunder Bay North Stars.
Fort Frances (6-1-0-1) was up 1-0, 3-2, and 4-3 at various times in the game.
But the North Stars (3-3) used an extra attacker to tie the score with 18 seconds left when Bradley Belisle beat Devin Tappenden.
“I saw it as a broken line rush by them that goes behind the net,” said Lakers’ head coach and general manager Wayne Strachan.
“Two of our guys take one of theirs, we then get ourselves out of position defensively, and, as a result, their forward is able to walk to the net and put a play in our net,” he recalled.
“I believe we understand the importance of desperation when we are tied or down,” Strachan noted.
“When we get the lead, we need to learn how to close teams out,” he stressed. “However, we seem to relax too often in this early season.
“I have warned now since the beginning of the season that sooner or later, our bad habits that we don’t want to change are going to haunt us and they did last night, resulting in us only getting one point,” Strachan added.
The shootout turned into a goaltender’s duel between Tappenden and Eric Mann, with Tappenden stopping Matthias Gardiman and Belisle while Mann stoned Colton Spicer and Mason Meyer.
Then in the third round, Brandon Wolframe found the back of the net. And when Wyatt Cota came up empty against Mann, Thunder Bay had its first win in three tries against the Lakers.
Matt Vela, Miles Nolan (power play), Cota, and Spicer each scored in regulation time for the Lakers.
Daniel McKitrick, Nicholas Nigro, and Ryan Walsh (power play) had the other goals for Thunder Bay.
Mann ended the game with 30 saves in regulation and three more in the shootout.
Tappenden replied with 36 stops before overtime, and two of three in the shootout.
Last night’s game also marked the Lakers’ debut of forward Luke Galatiuk, who was acquired from the Neepawa Natives (MJHL) for a player development fee.
“We brought him in as his reputation is to finish checks and bring a physical element to the game that we feel we need to add in our depth of our lines up front,” Strachan said in describing the 17-year-old native of Brandon.
“He skates well and definitely finishes checks,” noted Strachan.
“We will just have to make him understand our systems that will come with a few practices as we threw him right into a game without skating with the team last night.”
Galatiuk hadn’t seen any action with Neepawa this season after getting 15 goals and 10 assists in 45 games last year with the Colorado Eagles (Western States Hockey League).
Meanwhile, defenceman Ryan Reeves (foot) remains out indefinitely for the Lakers.
In related news, Lakers’ goalie Ryan Ferguson earned honourable mention for the SIJHL player-of-the-week award, which went today to goalie Kyle Carignan of the Minnesota Iron Rangers.
Carignan allowed only three goals in two games (both victories) last week.
The Lakers head to Ear Falls tomorrow night to face the English River Miners (0-5-0-1).
Their next home game is Tuesday (Oct. 14) at 7:30 p.m. against the Iron Rangers.
