Joey Payeur
Between the blistering words and hockey equipment flying through the air, the Fort Frances Lakers would have been wise to keep their helmets on during the second intermission Tuesday night.
The message got through in time, though, to spur a remarkable comeback.
The Lakers stormed back from a 5-1 deficit in the final period, with Dylan Robertson’s hat trick goal 1:12 into overtime finishing off a 6-5 victory over the visiting Dryden GM Ice Dogs.
“I was pretty heated after the second,” smiled head coach and general manager Wayne Strachan after the Lakers (5-1) moved into a first-place tie with the Minnesota Iron Rangers (5-3) with two games in hand.
“I said some things to fire them up and I might have thrown some sticks around to try to get them going,” he noted.
“For the most part, we played an awful hockey game and I never expected to come back and win in overtime,” added Strachan.
“But the guys never gave up and believed the whole time they could come back.”
The Lakers capitalized just once on their first seven power-play chances through two periods while turnovers and defensive lapses led to a four-goal second period for the Ice Dogs (4-1-1).
But after Strachan’s rant, the Lakers came out for the third ready to make things happen.
Rookie forward Cole Tymkin did so with his fists as the 16-year-old knocked down 20-year-old Dryden forward Kent Walchuk with several hard right hands in a spirited bout.
Barely a minute later, Nick Minerva walked across the Ice Dogs’ blueline and ripped a shot past goalie Paul Laferriere to cut the lead to 5-2.
Then the Lakers’ penalty-killing units took centre stage with an outstanding effort following three simultaneous minors that led to playing mostly two men short for more than four minutes.
But the Lakers survived unscathed, then killed off another slashing minor to Minerva.
Their short-handed supremacy was rewarded when Robertson finished off a 2-on-1 with Andrew Willner by stuffing home a rebound.
Then with the Lakers enjoying a two-man advantage, Dustin Deugau made it 5-4 with a stick-side bomb after his original shot was blocked.
Then with Pierce Dushenko on the bench for an extra attacker, Francois Lemelin tipped Robbie Bonthron’s blast from the point with 34 seconds left to tie the game.
“I just worked the puck up the wall and then went to the net,” the 19-year-old from Petawawa, Ont. said about his first goal as a Laker.
“I know I’ve got a big body that I can use to block the goalie’s eyes,” he noted.
With the Ice Dogs staggering, Robertson delivered the knockout punch when he went hard to the net after Minerva’s shot off the left-wing rebounded right to him.
He promptly put the puck into the open net with Laferriere caught out of position.
“Our penalty killing was the turning point and on our power play, we were being too cute and just had to get more pucks on the net,” noted Robertson.
“Dryden always plays a hard-nosed kind of game and we sunk down to their style of game,” he remarked.
“But our team theme is hard work and skill, and having all that open ice out there when it’s 4-on-4 really helps.”
The Lakers return to action Saturday when they head to Hoyt Lakes, Mn. to face the Iron Rangers.
Their next home game is Tuesday (Oct. 13) at 7:30 p.m. against the English River Miners.
