Lucas Punkari
While the games themselves mean nothing in the grand scheme of things, you can count Sioux Lookout Flyers head coach and general manager Brad Zangs among those that are very impressed with the performance of the Fort Frances Lakers during the SIJHL pre-season.
“Let’s face it, Fort is a hell of a team,” Zangs said following the 10-0 demolition his Flyers suffered at the hands of the Lakers here on Friday night at the Ice for Kids Arena.
“They have a good group of guys over there and I think they can compete with most of the teams in the NAHL,” Zangs enthused.
Encountering a four games in five days slate, the Lakers went a perfect 4-0 in contests against the Flyers and the Wisconsin Wilderness, with their offence scoring 32 goals during that span.
“It’s definitely a positive note to enter the regular season on,” Lakers head coach and general manager Wayne Strachan said.
“Having four games in five nights was a pretty big test and the majority of the guys that are still on the roster played in all four games, so they are a little tired and bruised up right now.
“But all in all I think they deserve some pretty high accolades for what they did and how they performed,” Strachan added.
The Lakers started off their exhibition schedule with an 8-4 win in Sioux Lookout last Thursday evening before their 10-0 whitewash of the Flyers here on Friday.
After a day off on Saturday, the offensive outburst continue for Fort Frances in a pair of wins over the defending SIJHL champion Wilderness, as they defeated the Wisconsin based side by a score of 6-4 here on Sunday afternoon and prevailed in a 8-5 decision in Spooner, Wisc. on Monday night.
Strachan was impressed that the scoring from the Lakers in all four games came from throughout the lineup, and that many players stepped up in the two games against the Wilderness with forwards Ryan Wildman and Jordan Larson both away at the Canada West training camp for the 2011 World Junior A Challenge.
“Adam Wensley didn’t dress in our game on Monday just so he can rest up, but he stepped up into that role on Sunday afternoon,” Strachan said.
“Guys like Colton Spicer and Byron Katapaytuk both had really good games on Monday and Henry Gutierrez seems to be continuing to carry his goal scoring streak from last year’s post-season into the pre-season, which is something that we hoped would happen with him,” Strachan added.
While the offensive side of the game is doing well, their is a couple of things that Strachan would like to have his team improve on before the regular season gets underway here on Friday night against the Thunder Bay North Stars.
“One of the things that we talked about a lot following the game on Monday was about our play in our own zone, and I was also not pleased with our discipline in the last two game,” Strachan explained.
“It’s not that we took a lot of penalties, but it was just some of the penalties that we did take weren’t smart or timely penalties,” Strachan added.
Prior to the drop of the puck on Friday evening at 7:30 p.m., Strachan has had to make a couple more final cuts in order to set his final roster before the season began.
Though the last cuts were not decided as of press time, the team elected to release Wisconsin-born defender Spencer Korum on Monday.
“Spencer is a really great kid who showed promise in some areas with his defensive ability,” Strachan stressed.
“I think though what it came down to in the end was the fact that we were looking for some guys on ‘D’ that are ready and capable now in trying to build our team to be at the top and to content for the league title,” Strachan explained.
In the meantime, the Lakers are now focused on their opening weekend slate of games to begin the SIJHL regular season, which will begin on Friday when the Lakers take on the North Stars, who will be hosting the 2012 Dudley Hewitt Cup.
“I don’t know a whole bunch about Thunder Bay yet, but as far as I know they have a bit of a younger team with some valuable veterans up front and on defence that will be very intense and hard working,” Strachan said.
“I know they made a trade with Neepawa (Natives) to get forward Matt Kaarela, who is a very skilled forward from Thunder Bay, and from there exhibition games in Manitoba I understand that their one goalie (Mikkel Bilodeau) has played very well.
“I’m kind of glad that we got to play Wisconsin in our last two games, as they play the type of higher intensity and quicker game which is what I expect to see here on Friday night,” Strachan added.
Following that game, the Lakers will be back in action once again at the Ice for Kids Arena on Saturday evening at 7:30 p.m., when they will against host the Flyers.
“On Saturday we need to come out firing on all cylinders and will be looking to try and jump on them early with a few goals that might bury them right away,” Strachan stressed.
“One of our goals for this year was to win our first game of the season, and I would like to be 2-0 after this weekend as that would get us on a really good start,” he added.
