Dan Falloon
The Fort Frances Lakers are keeping things in perspective.
Even though the Lakers lost an excellent chance at taking a 3-1 lead over the K&A Wolverines in their first-round playoff series, head coach Wayne Strachan didn’t feel drastic changes were in order for his team.
“We need to rest, and we’ll get in a couple good practices, go through our game plan again,” he remarked.
“We don’t really need to change anything,” he stressed. “When it came down to it, it was just mental errors.
“It was nothing about our physical ability.”
K&A drew first blood with a 5-3 win last Wednesday in Thunder Bay before the Lakers struck back with a 1-0 victory the following night.
Fort Frances then took a 2-1 series lead here Saturday night, winning 4-2, but K&A evened the series with a 5-4 victory Sunday, sending the series back to the Lakehead for Game 5 tomorrow night (March 11).
Game 6 is scheduled for here on Friday (March 12) at 7:30 p.m., with Game 7 (if necessary) going on Sunday (March 14) at 1:30 p.m. back in Thunder Bay.
Strachan gave his troops the day off Monday to recover, but planned to amp things up again yesterday.
One player who needed the rest was goalie Jameson Shortreed as Strachan felt many of the goals allowed in both games here were gift-wrapped for K&A.
“In the end, you need goaltending to be successful in the playoffs, and Jameson struggled in the second period [of Sunday’s loss],” recounted Strachan.
“Our bench kind of sunk when they scored the fourth goal [to go ahead 4-3],” he admitted.
Shortreed has shown flashes of brilliance in the series, recording a 35-save shutout in Game 2, and is sitting third for post-season save percentage with a .917 mark.
On the offensive side of the ledger, the Lakers’ attack is being led by some unlikely sources. Mike Jourdain, who netted only eight goals during the regular season, hit the twine in the first two games of the series, including the only goal late in Game 2.
Linemates Byron Katapaytuk and Jordan Carne have impressed, as well, sitting atop the playoff scoring list with five points apiece.
“We tried to match our size against their big line size,” noted Strachan. “Those three are working hard.
“They worked hard along the boards, opened up a lane for Carne to score [the Lakers’ first goal in Game 3].”
Perhaps even more jarring was the emergence of Irv Lockman in the Game 4 loss. He recorded just one goal and three points during the regular season, but exploded for a hat trick Sunday night to pace Fort Frances’ offence.
“Irv’s come a long way from day one,” said Strachan. “He was the type of player who never really got the opportunity to play at a high level.
“[But] he’s been working hard and getting the job done. His line’s been one of our better lines.
“He was rewarded tonight [Sunday],” added Strachan. “He was in the right spot for three goals and did a good job of keeping us in the game, that’s for sure.”
Fort Frances fell behind early Saturday night as Wolverines’ captain Matt Valley teed up a power-play point shot that got past Shortreed at 5:07 of the first period.
The lead was short-lived, though, as Carne put Katapaytuk’s centering feed past Wolverines’ goalie Spencer Malone at 8:19.
Henry Gutierrez then scored on a backhand at 11:11 to give the Lakers the lead.
Rory McKie knotted things for K&A at 12:23, but Katapaytuk picked off a clearing pass and wired the eventual game-winner at 14:08 to put the Lakers up 3-2 after one.
The second period was silent until Jaret Leclair rounded out the scoring, bumping home a rebound with just 10 seconds to go in the frame.
The third period was scoreless.
Shortreed made 30 saves in the win while Malone stopped 27 for K&A.
Strachan wasn’t thrilled about the two goals that K&A scored, but acknowledged his goalie came up in the clutch.
“He played well in the second and third, and made some saves when he had to,” lauded Strachan.
Then on Sunday night, the Lakers jumped out to a 2-0 lead in hopes of grabbing a commanding 3-1 series lead heading back to the Lakehead.
Morgan McNeill kicked things off with a blast past Malone at 5:24 before Lockman drove to the net and eventually banged one home at 8:30, ending Malone’s evening early.
The Wolverines clawed to within one after crashing the crease. Matt Hunter eventually slammed one to the back of the net after Shortreed became tangled up with a K&A forward.
But Fort Frances regained its two-goal cushion when Lockman blasted a shot over Wolverines’ back-up goalie Eric Swanick just 11 seconds into the second.
K&A struck right back, however, as Pierre-Luc Mercier swept a shot past Shortreed just 32 seconds later.
Tim Harris then helped the Wolverines pull even when his wrister eluded Shortreed at 8:23 before Brett Almgren gave K&A their first lead of the night when he banged home a juicy rebound at 13:58 to make it 4-3.
“Once we went up 3-1, they got that deflection goal, and then after that we just quit skating,” sighed Strachan. “We got away from our game plan of dominating below the goal line.
“And I hate to say it but there were soft goals that can’t happen in the playoffs,” he stressed. “They’re going to start hurting you when they go in.
“In the second, maybe we tried to do too much, going one-on-one instead of making the safe play and getting the puck deep,” he added.
The Wolverines increased their cushion to a pair as Aaron Ross tucked one home at 5:23 of the third.
Lockman drew the Lakers within one at 11:29 when he completed his hat trick off an impressive play by Gutierrez, who kicked the puck to his stick and dished off to Lockman seemingly in one motion.
Lockman slammed the puck into the twine, but Fort Frances could get no closer.
Shortreed made 35 saves in the loss while the tandem of Malone and Swanick combined to turn aside 24 Lakers’ shots.
Meanwhile, in the double round-robin showdown between Dryden, Fort William, and Sioux Lookout, the Ice Dogs took the advantage after the first round of play, downing the North Stars 2-1 in overtime on Saturday to boost their record to 2-0.
Fort William had defeated Sioux Lookout 4-1 on Friday to sit at 1-1 while the Flyers are at 0-2.
The series, which will determine seeding in the next round of the playoffs, continues tonight as Fort William visits Sioux Lookout.
