Joey Payeur
The band may be getting back together—the one that was the SIJHL’s greatest hit-makers the past three seasons.
Jaden Gustafson had his first two goals of the season, and his first two-goal game in Junior ‘A,’ as the Fort Frances Lakers doubled the expansion Thief River Falls Norskies 6-3 on Saturday night at the Ice For Kids Arena.
“I just tried to keep my feet moving and work hard and go to the net, and things were going my way,” said Gustafson, who opened the scoring with a power-play at 14:37 of the first.
He later made it 3-0 at 4:16 of the second.
The three-time defending SIJHL champs go into a 12-day break from action on a season-high three-game winning streak—and growing in confidence with each passing day.
“The theme over the last three games has been when we got ourselves in trouble, we’re able to rebound from it,” noted head coach and general manager Wayne Strachan, whose Lakers (5-8-1-2) are just one point behind the Norskies (6-8-0-2) for fourth place.
“When the intensity needed to be picked up, like tonight [Saturday] early in the third period, we were able to respond.”
The Lakers led 5-1 entering the final frame, then gave up goals by Alec Daman and Connor Smith in the first five minutes of the third.
But a time-out called by Strachan after Smith’s tally settled his team down.
Dawson Waddell, in just his second game with the Lakers, iced the victory at 10:19 with his first goal for his new team on a bullet from the right circle that got just inside the left post.
“If we work hard and start to get greasy and bring our lunchbox, we can look for that fourth title in a row, which would be pretty rare,” said Waddell, who was acquired last week from the Steinbach Pistons (MJHL).
Jack Bernie, Tyler Malpass, and Ryan Gazich also scored for the Lakers while Brandon Zajicek had three assists.
Ryan Wagner, stepping up in the absence of injured veteran goalie Brandon Bodnar, won his third-straight start with 26 saves.
He has allowed just five goals in that span.
Mitchell Soderberg had the other Norskies’ goal while starting goalie Kross Braaten, who was yanked after Malpass’ goal at 11:22 of the second, took the loss.
The Lakers, meanwhile, hope to get some of its six regulars currently out with injury back for their next game Nov. 25 against the Dryden GM Ice Dogs—the first of three-straight road contests.
But the squad will be without Bernie for that game, who pummelled Tyler Chalupsky in a fight inside the last 10 minutes of the third—earning both players an automatic one-game suspension.
In other news, 20-year-old forward Nathan Washington has returned home to Coquitlam, B.C. to rehabilitate a serious back injury that’s spelled the end of his junior career.
The Lakers’ next home game is slated for Dec. 2 against the Ice Dogs.
