Dan Falloon
It’s starting to appear that some home cooking is just what the doctor ordered for the Fort Frances Lakers.
Going into last night’s game with the Sioux Lookout Flyers here, the Lakers (11-25-4) were 3-1 on their season-high six-game homestand.
The Lakers’ only setback so far was a narrow 4-3 loss to the second-place Dryden Ice Dogs last Tuesday night (Jan. 26).
Fort Frances bounced back on Friday night, however, blanking the visiting K&A Wolverines 5-0. With the win, the Lakers climbed to within nine points of fourth-place K&A (15-25-5), with the locals holding five games in hand.
The teams will play their final match-ups of the regular season here on Feb. 19-20 in a potential first-round playoff preview.
The Lakers could not have asked for a better start Friday night as captain Tyler Stevenson scored just 42 seconds into the game.
Stevenson’s opener, his 15th goal of the campaign, came on a power play awarded to the Lakers before the puck even dropped. K&A’s Pierre-Luc Mercier was whistled for illegal equipment while lining up for the opening face-off.
Lakers’ goalie Jameson Shortreed was tested as the Wolverines looked for the equalizer, though. His best save came against Mercier, who had one-timed a pass off of Hartwell Marable’s wraparound.
But Shortreed flashed his glove to help keep the Wolverines off the board.
Stevenson had chances to increase his goal total with a couple of golden scoring chances—first getting robbed on a breakaway by Wolverine goalie Eric Swanick, then having a deflection bump off the inside post and back into play.
“I’ve definitely been getting chances. Too many not to bury them,” Stevenson remarked.
“I’ve just been gripping the stick a little too tight, I guess.”
He did hit the scoresheet again early in the third, though, breaking in with Justin Erhart and feeding his speedy sidekick a cross-crease pass that left Swanick out to dry.
Erhart easily converted for his sixth of the season.
Stevenson cited the play as an example of his chemistry with Erhart starting to bubble over.
“On his first goal there, we just knew where the other one was going to be,” Stevenson reasoned.
“The linemates I have have definitely been helping out.”
Cody Edwards made it 3-0 after finding a puck near the K&A blueline after getting out of the penalty box. With a head start on the Wolverines’ defenders, Edwards dribbled a shot through Swanick’s five-hole for his third of the year.
Erhart’s second of the game pushed the score to 4-0 as he whacked home a puck that was left alone in the slot during a Laker power play less than a minute later.
Mike Jourdain sealed the affair with a shorthanded empty-netter at 17:26, fluttering a shot just out of reach of the Wolverines.
Shortreed turned aside all 36 shots he faced to notch his second shutout of the season while Swanick made 25 saves in a losing effort.
Lakers’ head coach Wayne Strachan was pleased with the play of his goalie, who had sat while T.J. Pocock made two-straight starts.
Shortreed was given a rest in the 3-1 win over Wisconsin on Jan. 23 before being too sick to play in last Tuesday’s 4-3 loss to Dryden.
“I think Jameson came out and played his game,” said Strachan. “To bounce back and have the performance that he did, that’s what we need from our goaltending right now.”
Erhart and Stevenson each finished with three points on the night, with Erhart having recorded four goals in his last four games.
Strachan was effusive in his praise of his top line, which was formed when Erhart joined the Lakers at the start of December.
“They’ve been together for probably the better part of two months,” Strachan noted. “They’re finding the chemistry and camaraderie.
“I don’t really like to change my lines up too much, and now they’re clicking,” he added.
Also on the offensive front, the Lakers now have scored at two power-play goals in each of their last three games—an area Strachan said his team has been working on.
“We’ve played a lot of games lately, so it’s tough to get what you want to in practice, but that’s an area where we’ve really paid a lot of attention,” he stressed.
“We’re being patient, moving the puck around, getting the puck to the net and getting chances.”
Friday’s win was a solid bounce-back effort from last Tuesday’s disappointing 4-3 loss to Dryden, where the Lakers twice were able to cut into two-goal deficits in the third period but were unable to notch the equalizer.
Stevenson, Blake Boaz, and Byron Katapaytuk tallied in the loss.
After last night’s showdown with third-place Sioux Lookout, the Lakers will wrap up their homestand this Friday (Feb. 5) against the league-leading Fort William North Stars.
The team then will skip town for four in a row, beginning this Saturday (Feb. 6) at Sioux Lookout.
The Lakers had begun their homestand on Jan. 19 with a 4-3 comeback win over the Flyers, who were reeling at the time but just pulled off a 5-3 upset of Fort William on Sunday.
