Staff
Defenceman Ryan Brandt had a season-high four assists, while forward Cameron Coutre tallied twice and set up two others, to pace the host Dryden GM Ice Dogs to an 8-2 romp over the Fort Frances Lakers last night.
The fourth-place Ice Dogs (24-17-4-2) stormed out to a 4-0 lead on goals by Trygve Many Guns (two), Braden Shea, and Evan Pakkala.
It was more Dryden in the second period as they got goals from Coutre and Brody Nielsen to go up by six before the game was half-over.
Noah Loveday finally put the Lakers on the scoreboard with a power-play marker at the 10-minute mark.
The Lakers then added another 6:41 into the third on Jaedin Ness’ 16th tally of the season to trim it to 6-2.
But Pakkala and Coutre both connected later in the frame to cap the scoring.
In all, eight different Ice Dogs had multi-point performances in the victory.
Jacob Anthony made 17 saves to earn the win while Jacob Gnidziejko stopped 40 shots in taking the loss.
The fifth-place Lakers (16-27-2-1) were slated to host the last-place Minnesota Iron Rangers (3-46-0-0) on Saturday night, but that game was postponed due to a high number of injuries and illness that has extremely limited the Iron Rangers’ roster.
As one of the two U.S.-based teams in the SIJHL, Minnesota is not allowed to register affiliate players in accordance with Hockey Canada/USA Hockey rules and regulations and thus weren’t able to ice a complete line-up.
A make-up date will be announced by the SIJHL once it is finalized between the two teams.
The Lakers resume action tomorrow night when they hit the road to face the third-place Thief River Falls Norskies (27-17-4-1) at the Ralph Engelstad Arena.
Fort Frances then will cap the week with a trio of home games.
The Lakers will host the Norskies on Friday at 7:30 p.m. before welcoming the top-ranked Thunder Bay North Stars (41-3-1-1) on Saturday at 7:30.
The squad then will have an afternoon affair against the Ice Dogs on Sunday at 1:15 p.m.
All three games will be played at the Ice For Kids Arena.
