Joey Payeur
The Fort Frances Lakers plan to throw a banner unveiling party this Friday.
But if they plan to have another one next fall, there is plenty of work to be done in the interim.
The Lakers looked nothing like three-time defending SIJHL champions in their pre-season finale—falling 6-5 to the Thunder Bay North Stars last Friday night at the Ice For Kids Arena.
Head coach and general manager Wayne Strachan had a notion his team was walking into a tunnel headed for a freight train coming from the other direction.
“The first period was reflective of how we’ve practised all week,” said Strachan, whose team starts playing games that count this Friday at 7:30 p.m. when the Lakers open the SIJHL regular season here against the expansion Thief River Falls Norskies.
“We were lacklustre and not very motivated, and it took me voicing my opinion and getting on them a little bit to get them going,” he noted.
Tyler Minoletti exploited that attitude in the first period with a pair of goals to erase Jaden Gustafson’s opening salvo for the Lakers against Thunder Bay starter Nathaniel Dupuis at 1:44, which came off a North Stars’ turnover.
Two Lakers got turned around and lost track of the puck deep in their own zone—allowing Minoletti to whip a shot past Lakers’ starting goalie Brandon Bodnar.
Then just 1:47 later, the Lakers got caught out of position right off a defensive zone draw, letting Brad Arabia and Minoletti walk in on a 2-on-1 that the latter finished with a one-timer.
“We’re not being very physical and circling a lot, and are too puck-focused,” noted Strachan.
The downhill slide continued into the second, with two-straight goals by Kris Hamlin just over 5:30 apart that stretched the lead to 4-1.
The Lakers got one back on the power play courtesy of Jared Virtanen at 12:51.
But Thunder Bay sent Bodnar packing less than three minutes later.
Arabia knifed through the defence and beat Bodnar from in close before Johnny Parrott uncorked a wrist shot through a screen that eluded the Lakers’ netminder for a 6-2 edge.
In came Dylan Ossachuk, who is still around in what has become an extensive duel between himself, Billy Gorn, and Ryan Wagner for the back-up role to Bodnar.
“It was a combination of a mercy pull and it being an off-night for Brandon,” said Strachan.
“After the second, I thought it could very well have been a 3-3 game,” he noted.
“We had some breakdowns, but there were three goals from the perimeter that we need [Bodnar] to stop on a nightly basis.”
The goalie change sparked the home squad just 33 seconds later, when Dylan Kooner pushed the puck towards the net off a face-off and put it over Thunder Bay back-up Dan Demaria, who came on part way through the period for Dupuis in a planned switch.
Kooner then put home another goal moments after getting stopped on a breakaway for a short-handed tally to make it 6-4.
Ossachuk was pulled late in the period for an extra attacker, which led to Julian Uhryniuk’s marker with 30 seconds left during a scramble in front.
“There will be growing pains and it’s difficult dealing with having to evaluate guys in game situations in just one week’s time,” conceded Strachan.
He also noted several of the team’s returning players are making their own unpleasant evaluations of what they’ve seen out of some of the newcomers.
“There’s frustration from the older guys and they’re not liking the effort level from some of the younger guys,” Strachan said.
“These older guys are coming from championship-calibre teams who know what you have to practice like to reach that level or they come from leagues where the level is always intense,” he explained.
“We have guys who need to realize who they are and what they need to do to stay in the lineup.”
The Lakers won’t be at full strength to launch the new season Friday, when they’ll unveil their latest Bill Salonen Cup banner signifying their SIJHL supremacy last year, as well as the Hockey Northwestern Ontario branch championship banner, in a pre-game ceremony.
Still out indefinitely are Gorn (groin), defenceman Bryce Patterson (wrist), and forward Jacob Longmore (concussion).
Gustafson also will miss the opener after getting an automatic one-game suspension for getting in a fight in the final 10 minutes of the third period against Thunder Bay’s Justin Muir in last Friday’s game.
Forward Jack Bernie is slated to return from his upper-body injury by Friday while defenceman Matt Bruinsma (upper body) is a possibility.
