Mitch Calvert
The Fort Frances Jr. Sabres have bigger fish to fry now.
After two relatively easy wins last Thursday (3-1) and Saturday (5-0) against the winless Sioux Lookout Flyers, the Sabres (15-8-1) will be on the road again this Friday and Saturday for back-to-back games against the Schreiber Diesels—the team they’re chasing for second place.
The Sabres have won all three meetings between the two teams so far this season, but the Diesels (16-8-1) have won five-straight games going into Friday night’s match-up and have a lot of confidence at the moment.
“This weekend is huge,” Sabres’ head coach Wayne Strachan admitted. “Yes, we have taken it to Schreiber for the most part this season, but they are playing well and we know this.
“It isn’t going to be easy to go into their rink and come out with two victories,” he added. “We will take one game at a time, but we are going into the series looking for a sweep and sole possession of second place.”
The Sabres picked up four big points with solid road wins over the Flyers—allowing them to keep pace with the Diesels, who won a pair of games against the Dryden Ice Dogs over the weekend.
Kalib Thunderchief, Brendan Baumgartner, Colton Kennedy, Kyle Turgeon, and Ryan Witherspoon all scored in Saturday night’s 5-0 win while Ryan Faragher made 17 saves to earn his third shutout of the season.
“We used the last three games [against Sioux Lookout] as a practice mode to try and further get our systems down pat, especially defensively,” Strachan noted. “For the most part, we played well defensively.
“[When] you only give up one goal [over the three games], you must give credit to your team defence and goaltending.”
The Sabres are in the midst of a friendly portion of their schedule, having the Ice Dogs for two games on Dec. 17 and 20 after this weekend’s series in Schreiber.
After the Christmas break, however, the Sabres will go on the road for five games—opening the swing with back-to-back meetings against the league-leading Fort William North Stars on Jan. 9-10.
Meanwhile, the Jan. 10 trade deadline still gives the Sabres time to acquire more assets, with Strachan saying the door is always open to add players if the deal is right.
“As far as new players, we have our eye on a few,” he remarked. “Will they be in our lineup before the weekend? I can’t say they will [but] if they are, it makes us even better.
“We will be patient before the Jan. 10 deadline, making sure we are discreet in the players we will be looking at so that no information can be leaked to other teams in our league,” Strachan stressed.
In related news, Fort Frances native Tyler Miller suited up for the Thunder Bay Bearcats for a pair of games last weekend against the North Stars, tallying one assist in Friday night’s 2-1 loss before getting a natural hat trick (the last goal into an empty net) in the final four minutes of Saturday’s 5-3 win.
