Staff
The Fort Frances Jr. Sabres seem to have found their confidence at just the right time.
Despite allowing three unanswered goals in the final four minutes of Friday night’s 5-3 loss, the Sabres rebounded with a 4-1 win over the SIJHL-leading Fort William North Stars on Saturday night to split the two-game series here.
The Sabres (24-15-3) now have taken five of a possible eight points in their last four meetings with the Stars (33-6-3) after losing the first four clashes between the two teams before Christmas.
SIJHL scoring leader Trevor Gamache opened the scoring in the second period of Saturday’s game, but Brendan Baumgartner notched a power-play marker and Mitch Cain followed with a shorthanded one later in the period to make it 2-1 for the Sabres.
Dan Usiski added an insurance marker late in the third, then Chris Sinclair scored into an empty net to round out the scoring.
Friday night’s game, meanwhile, looked like a Sabres’ win for 55 minutes of action but the North Stars came to life thanks to Devlin native Jordan Davis, who circled the Sabres’ goal late in the third and then surprised goalie Ryan Faragher with a hard wrist shot with less than four minutes left to tie the game at 3-3.
Joel Langevin notched the go-ahead goal with just over a minute to go before Gamache sealed the comeback win with an empty-netter.
Gamache also scored earlier in the third to tie the game at 2-2 while Ryan Magill had the other goal for the Stars on a power play in the second.
Colton Kennedy scored twice for the Sabres, including a beauty of a breakaway goal in the second when he beat Stars’ goalie Patrick Sullivan high over the glove.
Sinclair netted a single in the first to account for the other Sabres’ goal.
The Sabres now go on the road for a pair of games, first taking on the second-place Thunder Bay Bearcats on Thursday night before visiting the last-place Sioux Lookout Flyers on Saturday.
