Lucas Punkari
A lengthy slump about a month ago that saw the Fort Frances Lakers slide in their race for top spot in the SIJHL is now a distant memory.
The red-and-white have won their last seven games, including three on home ice over the past week, which has bumped their record to 26-8-4 on the season and spurred a great mood among the players.
“The guys are all happy right now and there is a good atmosphere in the dressing room right now, which is great to be a part of,” enthused forward Jordan Christianson.
“I think the biggest thing for us right now is the work ethic that everyone is bringing,” added teammate Byron Katapaytuk.
“Everyone is contributing, which is helping us out a lot, and hopefully we can keep it going for the next two months,” he stressed.
The Lakers’ offence has been firing on all cylinders during the streak, with their highest goal-scoring outputs taking place here last Tuesday night in a 7-2 win over the Sioux Lookout Flyers and then in a 12-1 shellacking of the expansion Iron Range Ironheads on Friday.
“I think what that comes down to is the fact that the guys are all working hard, and our forecheck is also doing quite well as of late,” noted Lakers’ head coach and general manager Wayne Strachan.
“We’re getting our cycle going a lot better as of late and we’re being a lot more physical out there, which is causing us to create a lot of turnovers as a result, and that has helped us out a lot in getting going offensively,” he added.
The Lakers also showed they can win the tight games following a narrow 3-1 victory Saturday night over the visiting Thunder Bay North Stars—a team they’ve beaten four times during the current streak.
“I told the guys before the game, ‘How would you feel, and how would you come into a game, after being beaten three times by the same team in your own barn,’” Strachan recalled.
“The first two periods saw some very solid hockey from both teams,” he noted. “But in the third period, they put us on our heels and they were able to tie the game up, so we called a time-out to try and refocus.
“We were fortunate to get a bounce late in the game to win it, and it was definitely a playoff-type of atmosphere out there,” Strachan added.
That fortunate bounce Strachan was referring to came with 1:56 to go in regulation time when Katapaytuk got the puck in the slot from Christianson and fired it past North Stars’ goalie Marc Nother for the game-winner.
“That was just the luckiest thing ever,” Christianson smiled.
“One of their players [Sam Dubinsky] laid down and took away my lane to [Ryan] Wildman as I tried to feed it over to him, and it ended up hitting a stick and Byron was right there to get the puck,” he recalled.
“The puck just ended up on my stick somehow, and I saw the that low blocker side was open and I just went and took the shot,” Katapaytuk added.
Christianson netted the Lakers’ opening goal in the second period of play while Jaret Leclair added an empty-netter with 12 seconds left to round out the scoring.
In Friday night’s romp over the Ironheads, the home side actually gave up the first goal at the 13-second mark of the opening frame.
But they ran roughshod the rest of the way with 12 unanswered goals.
“Midway through the first period, we started to pick it up by keeping things simple,” said Strachan. “And once Davis Smith tied the game up, we started to get going from there.
“I don’t think we tried, in any way, to run up the score or try to embarrass them,” he stressed. “But with the offensive chances that we were able to create, I think it led to what happened with the final score.”
Leading the way was forward Merritt Rysavy, who had a goal and three assists for his highest single-game scoring output of the season so far.
“I guess you could say it was a mix of feeling good out there, having a little bit of luck, and some great linemates [Blake Boaz and Colton Spicer] to work with,” Rysavy said.
“It was just a lot of hard work and being in the right place in the right time in those situations, I guess,” he reasoned.
Katapaytuk also had a strong showing Friday, notching his third hat trick of the season, while Boaz and Wildman each had three-point outings of their own with a goal and two assists.
Larson, Spicer, Steve Terry, Bryan Broders, and Adam Wensley also scored in the win.
In the 7-2 win over the Flyers here last Tuesday, Larson and Wensley led the way with a goal and two assists, which largely came thanks to a newly-formed partnership with Bryan Broders.
“I think we see each other well out there,” Wensley said of the line, which was put together for the first time against the Flyers.
“We all play the same type of game and we all like to go to the net hard, and we just seem to find each other out there and it seems to be working good,” he added.
Broders, Katapaytuk, Terry, Smith, and Jon Carlson also tallied in that one.
Next up for the red-and-white is a six-game road trip that begins Saturday night in Spooner, where they will be taking on the front-running Wisconsin Wilderness, who sit seven points ahead of the Lakers in the standings.
“That will be a four-point game as they have games in hand on us in the standings,” said Strachan.
“They are a team that has won their last 14 games, and we have won our last seven, so it’s going to be a perfect match-up between the top two teams in the league.
“We just have go in and play our game there, and that will give us an opportunity to be the first team to knock them off down there this year, which would be a huge confidence boost for us,” he remarked.
The Lakers then will be back in action a day later in Duluth, where they’ll go up against the Clydesdales for the first time since a 6-4 win here Nov. 25.
“Duluth’s a strong skating team that moves the puck really well, and we will have to be physical and play our type of game against them,” Strachan warned.
“If we can keep going in the right direction, we should have some success, especially with this tough two-week stint on the road ahead of us.”
