Staff
The postman may ring twice, but it turns out that Santa Claus doesn’t.
After performing a minor Christmas miracle in stunning the league-leading Fort William North Stars 2-1 here Dec. 18, the Fort Frances Lakers opened the 2010 portion of their SIJHL schedule with a rematch with the North Stars.
Fort William apparently didn’t take kindly to the surprise and rolled to an 11-3 romp at the Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay on Saturday night.
Adam Restoule opened the scoring at 9:57 when he beat Lakers’ goalie Jameson Shortreed.
The Lakers responded, though, as Morgan McNeill knotted the game with his second of the season at 16:07.
The North Stars regained the lead less than a minute later as Ryan Pearson scored at 16:54.
Trevor Gamache then hit the scoresheet before the period was over to give Fort William a 3-1 lead at the first intermission.
The lead ballooned when Travis Savard tallied 6:15 into the second, but Colton Kennedy cut the gap to 4-2 when he netted his 23rd of the season past Fort William goalie Guillaume Piche.
But Savard, Riley Marsh, and Mitch Forbes tallied back-to-back-to-back for Fort William to pump their advantage to a back-breaking 7-2.
Justin Erhart’s second of the campaign brought the Lakers to within 7-3, but Kevin Hamel then notched Fort William’s fifth goal of the period with just over a minute to go.
Kyle Breukleman, Ryan Pearson, and Sam Dubinsky added third-period markers to complete the romp.
The hosts fired 51 shots at the Lakers’ net while Fort Frances managed a mere 18.
Fort Frances had no time to dwell on the loss, however, travelling across the city to take on the K&A Wolverines on Sunday.
The Lakers were looking to right a wrong after they were embarrassed 8-2 here Dec. 12 thanks to a seven-goal outburst in the second period.
And the visitors got it as Justin Erhart broke a 1-1 tie 6:50 into the third period en route to a 5-1 victory.
Lakers’ forward Byron Katapaytuk had his six-game point streak snapped in Saturday’s loss, but he started a new string—notching the lone goal of the first period assisted by Jaret Leclair and Ryan Presthus.
Jean-Luc Mercier evened the scored at 2:11 of the second for the only scoring of the middle stanza.
After Erhart’s third goal of the season gave the Lakers the lead, Conner Foster added some insurance with a power-play marker at 8:35.
Jordan Carne made it 4-1 at 13:08 with his seventh of the year before Kennedy closed out the offensive outburst, beating Eric Swanick for his 24th.
Shortreed again made the start for the Lakers, turning away 36 of 37 shots. Swanick, meanwhile, stopped 26 of the 31 shots he faced.
The Lakers will face those same Wolverines on Thursday at 8 p.m. at the Thunder Bay Tournament Centre before finishing up a busy week against the North Stars the following night at 7:30 p.m.
Fort Frances won’t see home action until Jan. 14 at 7:30 p.m. when the Wolverines invade the Ice For Kids Arena.
