Mitch Calvert
Fresh off a convincing 5-1 win over Schreiber here Thursday night, the Fort Frances Jr. Sabres rose to the challenge against the visiting Thunder Bay Bearcats with back-to-back victories Friday and Saturday.
The Sabres (10-6-1) carried the play right from the opening whistle Friday night, getting a goal and two assists from Gabe Capozzi en route to a 4-0 win over the Bearcats (11-2-3).
Mike Boese, Brendan Baumgartner, and Chris Sinclair also scored while Ryan Faragher made 34 saves to earn the shutout.
“We have really come together as a team the last couple of weeks,” Sabres’ head coach Wayne Strachan enthused.
“They have bought into hard work and playing for one another, [and] it’s good to see,” he added. “We needed to get some confidence against the Bearcats and I think we certainly have it now.”
Despite peppering Bearcats’ goalie Josh Mrakic in the opening 20 minutes, the two teams went to the intermission tied at 0-0 and it looked again like the Bearcats might have weathered the storm.
But the Sabres continued their offensive onslaught in the second, when Capozzi broke the goose egg by deflecting a Boese point shot high over Mrakic’s shoulder.
The top line struck again just over a minute later when Baumgartner corralled a loose puck at the top of the circle and wristed it home.
Less than three minutes later, Capozzi sent Mitch Cain and Sinclair in on a two-on-nothing with a good bank pass off the boards. Cain waited out Mrakic before sliding it across to Sinclair for a tap-in goal to make it 3-0.
Boese rounded out the scoring right off a face-off late in the second period—one-timing a Sinclair pass.
The Sabres held the visitors scoreless in the third to preserve their first win over the Bearcats this season.
It was a different story Saturday night as the Bearcats jumped out to an early lead when Chris Kitt scored his league-leading 18th goal on the power play midway through the first.
But Faragher kept the Sabres in it through 40 minutes and gave his teammates a chance to tie the game, which is just what happened when Dan Usiski finally got one past Drew Strandberg early in the third.
The Sabres carried much of the play through the third period and then into overtime, but the game ultimately had to be decided in a shootout.
Kitt scored on the Bearcats’ first shootout attempt, but Baumgartner also did on a quick move to the backhand.
Usiski netted the eventual game-winner with his signature top-shelf snapshot before Faragher stopped both Darren Cizmar and Chad Richard to ice the narrow 2-1 victory.
“It was a tough game as a coach to watch until the third period came around and the boys showed a lot of character coming back and winning the game,” Strachan lauded.
The Sabres are now off until Nov. 20-22, when they’ll head to Thunder Bay for a game against these same Bearcats and then a pair versus the Fort William North Stars.
