Joey Payeur
The victories for the Fort Frances Lakers are piling up like autumn leaves in your backyard.
The local Junior ‘A’ team made it 10 wins in a row this past week to put more distance between themselves and the rest of the SIJHL.
Their success also moved the squad up one spot to its new best-ever ranking of No. 5 in the Canadian Junior ‘A’ Hockey League top 20 rankings.
The Lakers beat the Minnesota Iron Rangers 5-2 in their debut at the new Couchiching arena last Wednesday night before disposing of the Wisconsin Wilderness 6-2 at the Ice For Kids Arena on Saturday.
“It’s definitely a huge accomplishment for our hockey team,” said Lakers’ head coach and general manager Wayne Strachan.
“We started the season with a loss, bounced back with a big win, and lost in a shootout,” he noted.
“Since then, we’ve been focused in the right direction.”
Mason Meyer, who led the Lakers (11-1-0-1) with a goal and two assists against Wisconsin (1-9), agreed.
“We’re getting lots of scoring, we’re playing good defence, our power play is clicking, and our penalty killing is helping us win games,” said Meyer, who is second in team scoring with 16 points.
Defenceman Tanner Fricke, who assisted on the opening goal against the Wilderness, said extra attention on preventing goals has been even more of a factor during the winning streak than filling the net with pucks.
“We’re gradually getting better in our defensive zone,” noted Fricke.
“We’re just keeping it simple.”
The Lakers scored four in the first against last-place Wisconsin, whose head coach, Ian Jensen, sat alone in the stands searching for answers following his team’s eighth-straight defeat.
“We talked before the game about how Fort Frances likes to occupy the centre of the ice in the slot at the top of the circles,” said Jensen.
“We told the guys don’t worry about them if they’re behind the net,” he added. “They can’t do any damage from there.
“But we didn’t take care of the centre of the ice in the first.”
Colton Spicer (fourth), Torrin Grange (fifth), Kevin Kurm (fourth), and Meyer (seventh) tallied in the first for Fort Frances.
Bryce Lipinski (sixth) was awarded the fifth Lakers’ goal at 10:07 of the third, which originally was credited to Kyle Lipinski but appeared to have been put in by Riley Daly.
SIJHL scoring leader Lucas DeBenedet ended the scoring with his 12th of the campaign, which is tied for the SIJHL lead with Trevor Hoth of Minnesota, late in the third.
Alex Arnold and Zach Kraft replied for the Wilderness.
Ryan Ferguson made 15 saves to get the win while Luke Thompson courageously turned aside 47 shots in defeat.
Against the Iron Rangers (7-5-0-2), Spicer scored a lucky goal on a dump-in that bounced past Minnesota goalie Erick Majerle to open the scoring.
Spicer then bookended that tally with the game’s final goal—using a lightning-fast deke to backhand one through Majerle’s pads late in the third.
DeBenedet, Brent Aiken (third), and Kurm had the other markers for the Lakers while Jordan Cartney made 23 saves.
Eric Madison and Matt O’Dea responded for the Iron Rangers, with Majerle stopping 24 shots in the loss.
The Lakers are on the road tonight to face the Dryden Ice Dogs (8-8) in the first of three-straight games, and five of their next six, away from home.
Their next home action is slated for Thursday, Nov. 7 when the Ice Dogs visit the Ice For Kids Arena at 7:30 p.m.
