Joey Payeur
Every fibre in Wayne Strachan’s body was begging for him to resurrect the ghost of Herb Brooks for at least one practice yesterday after his team laid a gigantic egg here Tuesday night.
Seth Chumley scored twice, and Kyle Carignan made 32 saves for his second-straight shutout, as the Minnesota Iron Rangers blanked the Lakers 6-0 in the first game of a home-and-home series.
It concludes tonight down in Hoyt Lakes.
The Lakers (7-2-0-1) can feel fortunate Strachan didn’t re-enact the memorable scene from the movie “Miracle,” when Kurt Russell’s spot-on depiction of Brooks puts his U.S. Olympic hockey team through a torturous skating session with nary a puck in sight.
“As much as I would like to [have a no-puck practice], I don’t think we can afford to,” seethed an unhappy Strachan.
“We need to work on some much-needed system things.”
Jack Crister’s goal in the first for Minnesota (5-1-1) was followed up by four more in the second.
Chumley struck for the first one at the nine-minute mark while the second went to Tristan Sabina.
The third was a short-handed tally by Jason Reynolds at 18:01, which chased Lakers’ starting goalie Devin Tappenden in favour of Ryan Ferguson.
The former Muskie was beaten with two seconds left in the second by Hunter Routheau, but allowed only Chumley’s second of the night during a power play in the third.
So what went wrong in the middle frame?
“Two things: lack of accountability in our defensive zone and not capitalizing on our chances,” said Strachan, who saw his team go 0-for-9 on the power play.
He hoped a clear wake-up call has been received.
“From the staff’s point a view, we hope a big one,” Strachan remarked.
“In that locker-room, they need to realize what it takes to compete every night at this level and the accountability you need to have in yourself and to your teammates to be ready and capable of doing your job every night.
“We warned it was coming to this but obviously we needed to find out what it feels like for it hopefully to sink in,” he reasoned.
Strachan tipped his hat to Carignan.
“I would venture to say we outchanced them in quality scoring chances,” he noted.
“They outshot us but we had several Grade ‘A’ chances [Carignan] made some big saves on or we missed the net on.
“I think he was the difference in the game because of his play,” Strachan added.
Lakers’ defenceman Ryan Reeves returned to action Tuesday night after missing five game with a foot injury.
But Strachan had to take forward Tristan Salesse (unknown) out of the game after he took a big hit.
Gordon Campbell, meanwhile, took a puck in the face.
The extent of both players’ injuries were unknown as of press time.
Strachan said tonight’s game in Hoyt Lakes will tell him what kind of a team he has on hands.
“I believe it is a good measure of where our character and leadership is at to have to bounce right back after being embarrassed at home and then going into their home arena,” he remarked.
The Lakers’ next home game is Saturday at 7:30 p.m. against the English River Miners
In related news, the second-place Dryden GM Ice Dogs fell another two points behind the Lakers after it was ruled today the team must forfeit its 4-3 shootout victory over the Thunder Bay North Stars back on Oct. 10.
That’s because the Ice Dogs had acquired three players who debuted for Dryden in that game before being officially approved by Hockey Northwestern Ontario.
Dryden’s record now sits at 5-2-0-2 while Thunder Bay improved to 4-4.
