Sabres lose pair of games

The Fort Frances Jr. Sabres hosted a tough opponent in the Fort William North Stars over the weekend, managing just one of four possible points despite some strong play.
The Sabres fell 6-4 Friday night in a match capped by an empty-netter by Fort William, and then lost 6-5 in overtime on Saturday.
“We salvaged something out of the series,” Sabres’ head coach Wayne Strachan said shortly after the overtime loss.
“It’s kind of hard to take right now, we worked so hard in this game and showed a lot of character . . . it’s really a mood killer at this point,” he added.
While the Sabres fell behind early Friday—trailing 3-1 after the first period—they fought tooth-and-nail throughout Saturday’s match.
Fort Frances trailed 3-1 after a goal by Darren Cizmar late in the second, but JP Boucha responded with his first tally of the season just 21 seconds later.
The third period went back and forth between the two clubs.
Alessio Tomassetti evened the score at 3-3 on a power play just two minutes into the third before Aaron Smith gave Fort William back the lead with an unassisted marker.
Mario Boivin evened the score minutes later, again on the power play, with an unpredictable hopper that bounced by North Stars’ goalie Mike Bannon before Brennan Menard notched a 5-4 lead with an equally fluky unassisted goal.
With the goalie pulled, Brock Owen scored on the power play, set up by a smart pass by Tomassetti, to tie the game with 12.1 seconds left to bring the crowd to its feet.
A soft tap by Zacharie Fontaine that found its way behind David Novak just 38 seconds into overtime deflated both the crowd and the Sabres.
“They showed a lot of character, a lot of pride,” Strachan said, putting a positive face on the weekend. “I think we’re going in the right direction.
“We’ve proven in the last two games against Dryden [currently first in the league] and this weekend we can play with them.”
The North Stars have spent most of the month atop the standings and currently are ranked 14th on the CJAHL’s top 15—the only SIJHL team on the cross-Canada list.
Tomassetti, who had two goals and an assist on the weekend, including a tying goal and setting up the Sabres’ final goal on Saturday, regretted the bad bounces, but was looking forward to the team’s next game against the Schreiber Diesels this Friday.
“We should get the win against Schreiber. It’s a must-win for us,” he stressed.
When asked why, the winger didn’t mince words.
“’Cause that team is not as good as we are,” Tomassetti said. “When we play, we can take it to any team in this league.”