Staff
Staff
Now that’s the power-play Fort Frances Lakers fans came to know and love last year.
The Lakers were a red-hot 4-for-6 with the man-advantage to boost themselves to a 5-3 win over the English River Miners in SIJHL action in Ear Falls on Saturday.
Fort Frances (14-5-1) moved four points up on the second-place Thunder Bay North Stars (12-6-1), who dropped a 4-3 decision to the Dryden GM Ice Dogs in Dryden the same night.
English River (4-13-2) grabbed a 2-0 lead after the first period on goals by Eric Champagne at 8:20 and Joel Warkentin (power-play) at 10:12.
But the Lakers took over in the second.
Mason Meyer ended a six-game goal-scoring drought by tallying back-to-back man-advantage markers at 9:19 and 15:40 to give him a team-high 12 for the season, with both of them set up by Bryson Jasper.
Miles Nolan gave the Fort its first lead at 5:55 of the third with his 10th of the year on another power-play before Richard Dartnall tied it at 16;04.
But Hank Bouchard’s slashing minor with under three minutes to play proved fatal for the Miners, as Wyatt Cota cashed in Jasper’s third assist of the night for his eighth of the campaign at 17:21 only 10 seconds into the power-play.
Dylan Kooner notched the only even-strength goal of the night for the Lakers with an empty-netter with 26 seconds to play.
Devin Tappenden made 22 saves to get the win in goal for Fort Frances, while Greg Harney has 34 stops for the Miners, who have played better of late, going 2-2 in their past four.
The Fort’s Colton Spicer was handed a minor and a game misconduct for checking from behind at 8:32 of the second and may be facing his third suspension of the season by the league.
Spicer, who leads the team with 25 points in 16 games this season, has already served a one-game suspension and a three-game ban for incidents from earlier this year.
The Lakers will now get to put their feet up during a 10-day break from action that won’t see them return to competition until Nov. 25 at home against Dryden at the Ice for Kids Arena at 7:30 p.m.
