Staff
A Spencer Milne goal with two-and-a-half minutes left in the first period held up as the winner as the visiting Red Lake Miners downed the Fort Frances Lakers 3-1 in SIJHL action on Tuesday night at the Ice For Kids Arena.
It was the second loss in a row for the Lakers, who slipped into third place with a 7-6-1 record.
Red Lake began quickly, opening the scoring just 1:27 into the first on Morgan Venne’s seventh of the season.
The Lakers tied it at 15:08, however, as Flynn Perry shovelled the puck from the side of the net where it clipped off the post and left Lakers’ captain Noah Loveday with a tap-in into the open net.
Then just a couple of shifts later, the Miners collected the eventual winner as Ethan Stuckless made a cross-ice feed over to Milne on the left side who one-timed his effort past Fort Frances goalie Dylan Kosik to make it 2-1.
Both Kosik and Miners’ goalie Zach Willms held firm from there until the latter moments of regulation.
The Miners added some late insurance after working the puck free along the right side board, which allowed Tucker Evans to pass it to Ryan Patterson, who lifted a backhander in over the glove of Kosik at 16:05 to round out the scoring.
Willms made an impressive 44 saves to earn the win, which improved the Miners to 8-4-0-1 and now puts them into second place.
Kosik turned aside 24 shots in taking the loss.
The Lakers will look to get back into the win column tomorrow night when they open a home-and-home series against the league-leading Thunder Bay North Stars (9-1-1) at 7:30 p.m. at the Ice For Kids Arena.
It will also be “Pink The Rink Night”, where all fans are encouraged to wear something pink in support of breast cancer awareness.
The Lakers then will head to Thunder Bay on Saturday night for a 6:30 start at the Fort William Gardens to complete the set.
