Mitch Calvert
The Fort Frances Jr. Sabres keep proving their doubters wrong.
Despite failing to add some offensive weapons prior to the preliminary Dec. 1 trade deadline, the squad has rattled off four-straight wins ever since, including a pair of road victories over the Schreiber Diesels on the weekend.
The Sabres (17-8-1) opened the series Friday night with a 3-0 shutout—backstopped by a 36-save effort from Ryan Faragher between the pipes.
Mitch Cain and Brendan Baumgartner netted power-play markers in the first period, with captain Chris Sinclair adding an insurance marker in the middle period to seal the Diesels’ fate.
Saturday night’s game started out much the same way, with the Sabres again getting a pair of first-period markers—this time from Mitch Cain and Dan Usiski.
But unlike Friday, the Diesels (16-9-2) didn’t roll over and die. After a scoreless second, the hosts scored three unanswered goals in the third to grab a 3-2 lead with under five minutes to play.
The Sabres struck back, however, getting a late power-play goal from Usiski with just over two minutes left to send the game to overtime.
The extra period solved nothing, so the teams went to a shootout, where Gabe Capozzi became the hero with the only goal as the fifth shooter in the 5-4 win.
Faragher stopped all five Schreiber shooters, on top of 45 of 48 shots in regulation and overtime.
The Sabres are now a perfect 5-0 against the Diesels this season, and sit a point ahead of their rivals for third in the SIJHL standings—one point back of the Thunder Bay Bearcats with a game in hand.
The Bearcats leapfrogged both teams with three-straight wins over the winless Sioux Lookout Flyers.
The Sabres next head up Highway 502 to meet the Dryden Ice Dogs on Wednesday before coming home to host that same team on Saturday (Dec. 20) at the Ice for Kids Arena.
The squad then will break for the holidays, not resuming play until Jan. 9 when they go on the road to face the first-place Fort William North Stars.
