Lucas Punkari
Even though the Fort Frances Lakers are comfortably lodged in second place, the quest of being a consistent hockey team heading into the final month of the regular season has proven to be an issue of late.
After a seven-game winning streak came to an end Jan. 14 at the hands of the Wisconsin Wilderness in Spooner, the red-and-white have been alternating between wins and losses ever since, with their most result being a 4-3 shootout loss to the Dryden Ice Dogs here Monday night.
“With our team right now, we seem to be in a span where we win one game and lose the next one,” noted Lakers’ head coach and general manger Wayne Strachan.
“We need to do something here soon to get back rolling, and to get some momentum on our side that we can take into the playoffs,” he stressed.
Monday’s loss might have been the toughest one in a while as the Lakers watched a two-goal lead evaporate in the final six minutes of regulation time, with Ice Dogs’ defenceman Len Pelletier scoring the game-tying goal with just 13 seconds to go.
After overtime solved nothing, both teams headed to a shootout, where Austin Lewis was the only Dryden player to beat Lakers’ goalie Tyler Ampe.
But at the other end of the rink, Ice Dogs’ netminder Kim Wildhaber stymied Colton Spicer, Byron Katapaytuk, and Jordan Larson to give his team the win.
“We just gave them two points,” Strachan sighed following the setback, which also ended the Lakers’ five-game home winning streak.
“We rode the momentum in the first period to take a 2-0 lead, but then we just sat back the rest of the game and I think that’s a reflection of how we play against that team,” he added.
“We need to find a way to get over this curse or whatever it is that we have against the Dryden Ice Dogs.”
Down the hall, there was jubilation in the Ice Dogs’ locker-room as they snapped a four-game skid and now sit only two points back of the Thunder Bay North Stars in the race for third place.
“In our last couple of games here, we have had our comebacks after being down and I’m not totally sure why that is, to be honest,” said Ice Dogs’ head coach Joe West.
“When we are down, I just tell the guys to get as many pucks on net as possible,” he noted. “And in the final minute-and-a-half, we pulled our goalie and we kept the puck in their zone for a long time.
“The effort was there in that final minute and we got the goal that we needed to force overtime, and eventually a shootout, so a result like this one is very good for our team,” West added.
Ryan Lobreau led the Ice Dogs with a goal and two assists.
The Lakers top point-getters were Ryan Wildman and Brandon Fehd, with a goal and an assist each, while Katapaytuk increased his league-leading point total to 68 with a pair of helpers.
Larson opened scoring just past the midway point of the first period.
It was a different story Friday night as the Lakers kicked off a four-game homestand with a 4-2 triumph over the Duluth Clydesdales thanks to a standout effort by back-up goalie Tanner Hamilton.
The 20-year-old from Saskatoon made a number of huge saves when his team needed them, turning aside 40 shots in all on his way to picking up his fourth-straight win.
“This was definitely my best game of the year,” enthused Hamilton, who had last started on Jan. 15 in a 5-4 win over the Clydesdales in Duluth.
“I have been working hard in practice lately to try and get ready for games, and I think that really helped out a lot with my game here tonight,” he reasoned.
“Tanner made some strong saves for us tonight, along with some key ones that we needed at crucial times,” lauded Strachan.
“He’s been taking well to his role as a number-two goalie with us, and I think a performance like this will help a lot with his confidence.
“We can’t use Ampe all through the next month so Tanner will be getting his fare share of games here in February,” Strachan noted.
When asked what made his play so stellar Friday night, Hamilton quickly noted it came down to what happened even before he put his pads on.
“My pre-game preparation was just awesome today,” he explained.
“I try not to think about hockey too much during the day, so I just relaxed at home and ended up playing a little bit of squash here with the guys and that helped to keep me loose before the game.
“I also had the mindset going in that this was going to be a big game, as well.
“Plus I had some inspiration in knowing that [Hunter] Scott had a hat trick on me that last time we played, so I wanted to get back at them,” Hamilton added.
Henry Gutierrez led the way against Duluth with a pair of goals, with linemate Jaret Leclair helping to set both of them up.
Jordan Christianson and Blake Boaz also beat Clydesdales’ netminder Matt Arnold, with their goals coming on the power play.
The win also was a nice bounce-back for the Lakers after they had dropped a 5-2 decision to the first-place Wilderness in a neutral-site contest in Virginia, Mn. last Thursday.
After a scoreless first period, Katapaytuk tallied at the three-minute mark of the second frame.
But the Wilderness put the game out of reach soon afterwards with five unanswered goals to cruise to their 21st-straight victory.
“I thought in the first two periods it was a really good back-and-forth game between both teams, which is very similar to the last two games that we have played against them,” Strachan recalled.
“In the third there, we had a few suspect penalty calls that went against us.
“But I’m not placing any blame on the refs as I don’t think we were very smart in controlling our emotions and we deserved some of the penalties that were called on us,” he stressed.
“I’m not worried about how we do five-on-five against them as I think we match up well,” Strachan added.
“But we need to limit their power-play chances as they are very dangerous when you give them those opportunities.”
Katapaytuk rounded out the scoring late in the game with his second goal of the night.
After the late-game collapse against Dryden on Monday night, Strachan planned to put his team through two hard practices today and tomorrow as they prepare for two more meetings with the Ice Dogs.
The first goes here Friday at 7:30, with the second taking place in Dryden next Wednesday (Feb. 8).
“We need to bring the intensity to practice on both Wednesday and Thursday, and hopefully we can carry that over to Friday’s game, which is a must-win game for us as Dryden can still catch us in the standings,” Strachan remarked.
“The guys need to make sure that they are prepared and taking care of themselves during the week, and they need to come in and give a 60-minute effort on Friday.
“And if we can do that, we should get a win and gain some confidence against them,” he reasoned.
In between the games with Dryden, the Lakers will wrap their four-game homestand Saturday at 7:30 p.m. when the Sioux Lookout Flyers come into town—fresh off ending Wisconsin’s 21-game streak on Friday.
“Sioux has been kind of a weird team all year, and definitely when they are playing us,” Strachan noted.
“On the games they have shown up in, they have given us a hard time, but that’s just like any team in the league.
“If you don’t come ready to play up to your potential and do the little things that will bring you success, you’ll be in for a long night,” he warned.
