Dan Falloon
The Fort Frances Lakers got some help from an unlikely source here Saturday night as they won consecutive games for just the second time.
Back-up goalie T.J. Pocock, making just his third start of the season, picked up his first victory in a 3-1 win over the visiting Wisconsin Mustangs.
His performance lowered his goals against average to 5.28 and boosted his save percentage to 0.583.
Lakers head coach Wayne Strachan was proud of Pocock, who made his first start since a 5-3 loss to Sioux Lookout back on Nov. 12.
“We just decided that it was time to give T.J. a start and give [Jameson] Shortreed a bit of a rest,” noted Strachan.
“T.J. came focused and ready to play, and made a lot of good saves that probably held our lead and gave us some momentum to continue fighting hard,” he lauded.
The 18-year-old appreciated the chance to ply his trade, and was thrilled he had made the most of it.
“I’ve been waiting a while for this,” admitted Pocock. “It finally happened and I just wanted to do the best I could.
“I was a little bit shaky at times, but played well overall.”
Pocock, originally from Fort Frances, had requested the trade away from the MJHL’s Steinbach Pistons in the hopes he would get more ice time—an opportunity he hopes has been earned.
“Hopefully I’ll get some more ice time,” Pocock remarked. “I had actually asked for the trade, hoping I would get some more playing time.”
Strachan acknowledged Pocock had not been given many chances so far this season, but Saturday night’s performance may have secured the extra ice time he craves.
“He did a great job and he showed our staff that he deserves a bit more of a look,” noted Strachan.
“His ability is there. He can be a solid goalie at the junior level,” he stressed.
Earlier in the season, Strachan felt Pocock needed to regain his confidence after a less-than-stellar stint with the Pistons to start the season. Pocock allowed nine goals on 36 shots in 51 minutes of playing time with Steinbach this year.
“He needed to learn hard work in practice, to challenge the puck hard in practice,” Strachan said.
“We hope tonight should be a huge confidence-builder for him.”
The Lakers (10-24-4) last won back-to-back games on Oct. 30 and Nov. 3, when they beat Wisconsin 4-1 there before returning home to bounce Sioux Lookout 4-2.
“We got timely goals when we needed them and it was enough to hang on for the win,” said Strachan.
The Lakers had beaten the Sioux Lookout Flyers 4-3 here last Tuesday night to snap a four-game losing streak.
Strachan was thrilled his squad is starting to make in-roads here at home, where they’ve now won three of their last four games after losing seven in a row at the Ice For Kids Arena to start the season.
“We’re at home in front of our home fans. . . . It’s kind of a tribute to them as they’ve been loyal and stayed with us throughout the year when we haven’t been so good,” enthused Strachan.
Strachan also cited the importance of building up steam heading into last night’s game against the second-place Dryden Ice Dogs as the Lakers continued a six-game homestand.
“As a team, it’s great for our confidence to obviously build on our last two games, especially this game [against Wisconsin], because we played 50 good minutes and about a strong 30 minutes last game [against Sioux Lookout].
“So that’s 80 minutes out of 120 that we’ve played pretty good at home in our own rink,” he remarked.
The Lakers and Mustangs battled through a scoreless first period in which Fort Frances outshot the visitors 14-9.
Justin Erhart finally opened the scoring 6:31 into the second as he dug the puck out of a crowded crease and slid one past Mustangs’ goalie Jeff Dunaisky.
Fort Frances then bumped its lead to 2-0 with just three seconds left in the period when Matt Caulfield tapped in a loose puck after a goalmouth scramble.
The power-play marker was Caulfield’s third point in the past two games, and his second goal since being traded to the Lakers from the Dryden Ice Dogs earlier this month.
The Lakers wrapped things up midway through the third.
Hasbargen was driven into the corner by the Mustangs’ defence but threw a backhanded seeing-eye pass out front to captain Tyler Stevenson, who wired a no-doubter past Dunaisky into the open cage to make it 3-0.
Stevenson’s 13th of the season was the Lakers’ second power-play goal of the game.
As the third period wound down, all the suspense that remained was whether Pocock could hold on to earn the shutout.
It was not to be, however, as the Mustangs spoiled the bid with less than two minutes to play when Ian Jensen beat Pocock from in close on the power play.
Pocock stopped 29 of the 30 shots he faced while Dunaisky blocked 30 of 33.
The Lakers finished two-for-four on the power play—the first time they had scored more than once with the man advantage since an 8-3 loss to Fort William on Jan. 8.
In last Tuesday night’s 4-3 win over Sioux Lookout, assistant captain Tim Hennessey scored the game-winner with just over five minutes to go.
Erhart, Caulfield, and Jaret Leclair rounded out the scoring while Galen Matyjanka, Alex Beaulne, and Ian Alcock replied for Sioux Lookout, who squandered leads of 2-0 and 3-2.
Shortreed made 21 saves in the win while Jordan Giguere stopped 28 Laker shots.
Fort Frances trailed fourth-place K&A by 11 points and third-place Sioux Lookout by 12 points heading into last night’s action.
However, the Lakers hold six games in hand on K&A and five on Sioux Lookout, so Strachan knows his charges will have to make hay on home ice if they intend to plow their way out of the basement.
“We get to rest in our own beds, and we need to use that to our advantage,” Strachan stressed.
Over the course of the two wins, Strachan felt his team tightened up defensively.
“Coming out of the Sioux Lookout game, we took care of our own end in the second and third period, and did little things that were smart,” lauded Strachan.
“We got to the puck, we had active support, and we got the puck out,” he noted.
After last night’s game against Dryden, the Lakers still had dates with K&A (Jan. 29), Sioux Lookout (Feb. 2), and Fort William (Feb. 5) remaining on the homestand before hitting the road for four in a row beginning Feb. 6 in Sioux Lookout.
