Lucas Punkari
First-year defenceman Owen Stauber may have summed up the mix of emotions best after the Fort Frances Lakers fell 3-2 in double overtime here last night to the Minnesota Wilderness, giving the visitors their third-straight Bill Salonen Cup.
“We’re all pretty disappointed right now as we know that we have something special in that dressing room,” Stauber said.
“But we’re not going to dwell on it too long as not many people thought we would make it this far, and I think we showed a lot of people what we came here to do this year,” he added.
The Lakers’ season came to an abrupt end at the 1:43 mark of the second overtime when goalie Talor Joseph was unable to make a clean exchange with Stauber in front of his net.
That allowed Wilderness forward Jeremy Johnson to crash the net and slide the puck home for the series-winning goal, which left the 873 fans on hand at the ’52 Canadians Arena in stunned silence while the visitors celebrated another league crown.
“We knew that this goalie was a little bit shaky in playing the puck, so I just crashed the net hard and I able to bang that loose puck off him and into the net,” noted Johnson, who was a member of last year’s championship squad—then based out of Spooner, Wis.—that defeated the Lakers in seven games in the SIJHL final.
“It was kind of a [cruddy] goal to score to win it, but it was one of those games where a strange bounce was going to end it in overtime,” he reasoned.
While Joseph was visibly upset as he made his way back to the bench, his teammates were quick to console him as his 37-save performance helped to keep the Lakers in the game on numerous occasions.
“Talor is one of the main reasons that we were in this position,” stressed Lakers’ head coach and general manager Wayne Strachan.
“Since he came here, he’s been working to earn that number-one spot and he’s a goalie that comes up with a lot of big saves.
“He’s someone that I see having a great future ahead of him, and I hope that he will be back with us here next year,” Strachan added.
Stauber led the way offensively last night, scoring a power-play marker in the second period after assisting on Kevin Kurm’s goal in the opening frame.
Nick McCormack and Joseph Drapluk scored in regulation time for the Wilderness while Gordy Defiel made 29 saves to earn the win.
With the win, the Wilderness qualified for their third-straight Dudley Hewitt Cup, which will take place April 30-May 4 in North Bay.
“We know what to expect going in,” said Wilderness head coach and general manager Rod Aldoff.
“When we went for the first time, we didn’t know what we were getting into,” he admitted. “But we used that as a learning experience, and I thought we were more prepared and ready to go last year.
“It’s like a Game 7 every night there, and the game here tonight was good for us heading into the tournament,” Aldoff added.
The Wilderness, who failed to make the playoff round in their previous two trips to the Dudley Hewitt Cup, were the last team to qualify for the tournament.
The North Bay Trappers of the NOJHL will host the event, with their league rivals and defending tournament champion Soo Thunderbirds also competing as the NOJHL rep.
Those two squads still are battling it out for their league title, which is headed to a seventh-and-deciding game tomorrow night in North Bay.
The St. Michael’s Buzzers, meanwhile, will represent the OJHL after capturing their league’s title in seven games over the Newmarket Hurricanes.
