Joey Payeur
A new winning streak is alive in “Lakerland”—one the local squad hopes stretches even farther this time.
Lucas DeBenedet scored twice and Mason Meyer had four assists as the Fort Frances Lakers dumped the Wisconsin Wilderness 6-1 in SIJHL action here Friday night.
“We took care of the middle of the ice tonight better, especially in front of the net,” said Lakers’ head coach and general manager Wayne Strachan, whose team won its second in a row after having its 15-game winning streak stopped last Tuesday in Thunder Bay against the North Stars.
“We were able to keep them to the outside on the perimeter more and we had five guys always coming back hard to backcheck,” he noted.
DeBenedet, Brent Aiken, and Cody Wickstrom each bulged the twine in the first period to give Fort Frances (18-1-0-2) a 3-0 lead over Wisconsin (1-20), which now has lost 19-straight games.
DeBenedet added his league-leading 18th goal less than five minutes into the second—abruptly ending the night for Wilderness goalie Griffin Strain and bringing on Luke Thompson.
Hunter Leishman made it 5-0 about three minutes later on a frenzied rush that saw him spun around and down to his knees, with a defender’s stick caught up in his gear, only to keep on going towards the net.
He eventually swatted the loose puck past Thompson, who ended up with the wayward stick partially stuck in his face mask as he tried to stop Leishman.
Billy Grillo padded the lead early in the third before Wisconsin spoiled Jordan Cartney’s bid for his second shutout of the season when Alex Arnold scored at 13:08.
Cartney finished with 21 saves while Thompson made 16 stops in relief of Strain.
New Wilderness head coach John McCreary, who replaced Ian Jensen behind the bench Nov. 12, was encouraged with what he saw in the latter stages of the game from his troops in what he hoped was one of their last games with only 14 skaters.
“Our focus is to bring in more guys as soon as possible,” stressed McCreary, who was associate head coach with the Central Wisconsin Saints in the Central Junior Hockey League before coming on board with the Wilderness.
“If we play a lot more like we played that third period, we’ll be singing a lot different song in the future,” he predicted.
The Lakers, meanwhile, were without injured forward Miles Nolan, who is day-to-day with an upper-bod injury, and forward Donovan Cousineau, who absorbed a knee-on-knee collision against the Dryden Ice Dogs on Nov. 9 and is week-to-week.
Defenceman John Dora, coming off his own recent injury woes, was given the night off after not playing as well as Strachan expected during the two-game road trip last week against Thunder Bay and the Minnesota Iron Rangers.
“John was a healthy scratch in hopes of sending a message,” said Strachan.
“We need him at the top of his game every night.”
Making his Lakers’ debut was forward Jason Berube, who was picked up from the Dauphin Kings of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League last Sunday (Nov. 17) in exchange for a player development fee.
In a scheduling quirk, Friday’s game was the first of three-straight between Fort Frances and Wisconsin, with the second match-up set for tomorrow night in Spooner.
The teams then will return to the Ice For Kids Arena this Friday at 7:30 p.m. for the finale.
