Joey Payeur
There are a couple of clouds in the Fort Frances Lakers’ atmosphere.
A 3-0 loss to the Thunder Bay North Stars in SIJHL action here Saturday night means Fort Frances have dropped two of their past three games for the first time this season.
Coming on the heels of Friday night’s dominating 7-0 win here over the second-place Dryden GM Ice Dogs (14-5-1-2), Lakers’ head coach and general manager Wayne Strachan was scratching his head for answers.
“I’m still wondering myself,” admitted Strachan, whose team dropped from No. 4 to No. 6 in the CJHL’s latest top 20 weekly rankings.
“In the game of hockey, there ups and downs and teams that can control those emotions find success,” he noted.
“I believe we were on a high from the night before and our emotions for Saturday were still high, but our minds were not in the right place,” Strachan added.
“It was just not our night and [the North Stars] worked hard.”
Thunder Bay (9-11-0-1) has won both its games since the return of last year’s SIJHL coach-of-the-year, Jeremy Adduono, to the bench in place of the fired Gary Wenzel.
The North Stars also have handed the Lakers three of their four losses this season.
Thunder Bay scored on its first three power-play opportunities of the night in the second period while stonewalling all eight Laker power plays, including three two-man advantages.
“On our penalty kill, we didn’t pick men up after initial shots and we didn’t play with the work ethic needed,” recalled Strachan.
“But when you take seven bad penalties in a game, you make it hard on yourself to have success,” he reasoned.
“Our power play right now is on its own agenda,” Strachan added.
“We have players being individuals, not keeping things simple,” he noted.
“And until we just keep it basic, play our positions, and move the puck, we are going to continue to struggle,” he warned.
North Stars’ goalie Riley Corbin stopped all 30 shots he faced to earn the Amyotte’s Awards & Promotions player-of-the-week award.
Lakers’ forward Carter Chorney said the team got caught resting on its laurels from 24 hours earlier.
“After Friday’s huge win in our most dominant win this year against Dryden, we came in too high, too confident, and we didn’t come ready for Saturday’s game,” he admitted.
“We need more urgency,” Chorney stressed. “We lose our intensity on the power play.
“We have to learn to chill and not be like, ‘Oh, I’ve got to score a goal now,’” he added.
“We can’t be like that.”
Friday’s contest featured a little bit of everything for both the hockey fan and fight fan.
The Lakers (17-3-0-1) scored three times in each of the last two periods against Ice Dogs’ goalie Taylor Unruh—while also scoring with a right hand or two in four separate fights in the game.
Dylan Robertson scored twice and added an assist to lead the Fort attack.
Ryley Bosman, Andrew Willner, Dylan Kooner, Dustin Deugau and Christian Ripley had a goal apiece.
Pierce Dushenko recorded 34 saves to nab his third shutout of the season, which now gives him the SIJHL lead in that department to go along with wins (14), GAA (2.44), and save percentage (tied with Corbin at .920).
Fort Frances next heads to Hoyt Lakes tomorrow night to face the last-place Minnesota Iron Rangers (8-12-2), who won 4-3 in a shootout there last Tuesday to snap the Lakers’ nine-game winning streak.
Then it’s off to Cochenour on Saturday to take on the fourth-place English River Miners (7-11-1-4) before facing the host Ice Dogs (14-5-1-2) next Wednesday.
Their next home game is set for Saturday, Dec. 12 against the Iron Rangers.
In related news, Lakers’ defenceman Nick Minerva yesterday was named as the SIJHL Gongshow Gear Inc. performer-of-the-month for November.
The 19-year-old from New Brunswick, N.J. had 11 points in seven games during the month.
Minerva is second in scoring by defencemen in the SIJHL with 20 points in 18 games.
