Sabres win, lose, and draw on road trip

The Fort Frances Jr. Sabres played three games on their first-ever eastern road trip and came away with three different results—earning a win, loss, and tie over the weekend.
“I think after you look at the whole weekend, it’s pretty successful getting four points out of six,” said Sabres’ head coach Wayne Strachan.
The Sabres earned a split in their two-game series against the Marathon Renegades. They came of the gate strong Friday night, notching a 4-2 win despite missing a number of regulars from their lineup.
Jordan Matthews, Dan Usiski, JP Boucha, Mario Boivin, and Strachan all were suspended because of a cross-ice brawl late in the team’s previous game against the Dryden Ice Dogs, as was Logan McDonnell for his sixth fight in the SIJHL.
Brock Owen, the other player on ice during the brawl, is out with a concussion suffered after hitting his head on the ice in the altercation.
As well, goalie Ryan Faragher has been saddled with a lower body injury.
Strachan said Friday night’s game was a good chance for a number of regulars to shine with the extra responsibility, including assistant coach Jon Cooper, who assumed the head coaching duties.
“They did a great job,” Strachan enthused. “I was able to talk before and between periods with [Cooper] and we kind of strategized, but when the decisions came down on the ice,” they were well made.
“The guys, having to get up at six in the morning and travel all day and play like that was a good test for them, and it says a lot for their character,” he added.
With a full corps after the suspensions had been served, the Sabres looked like the winning team in the rematch against Marathon on Saturday afternoon but ultimately fell 6-5.
The loss came after the Sabres stretched an early lead to 5-2 midway through the second period before the wheels came off.
“We played good up until we had the 5-2 lead and it was like we thought the game was over. Marathon clawed their way back,” Strachan noted.
The Sabres were on the other end of the comeback Sunday in Schreiber, when captain Quinn Amiel completed a hat trick by scoring the second and third goals with the team down 3-1 to the host Diesels.
“I thought we were the better team by far on the ice against Schreiber, but you know if were not going to work hard for 60 minutes, same old story,” Strachan lamented.
On Amiel, he added: “He’s not the most ‘rah-rah’ guy, but when he steps on the ice, he shows by example, and right now his linemates are feeding off him—and so are some other guys on the team.”
The biggest difference between this three-game set and the rest of the season was the play of David Novak, who was called upon for all three games after Faragher was felled by injury and did not travel east with the team.
Neither goalie had played full back-to-back games yet. But while the Sabres brought along an affiliate goalie in David Moen, Novak was able to play nine periods plus two overtimes over the weekend.
“It was a chance for Dave to get three games in a row,” Strachan noted. “He’s hurting a bit, too, but he rose to the occasion. . . .
“It’s kind of what we needed from our goaltending—was for one of them to step up and take charge of the games.”
Strachan credited Novak with making “a huge breakaway save” in the dying seconds against the Diesels that kept the game knotted at 3-3.
Novak said he was happy with his play “for the most part.”
“First and last game, I thought I played better than the second game,” he remarked. “But I thought I played well throughout the weekend.
“I mean, you’re never completely satisfied.”
Novak added adjusting to playing three-straight games after getting a game off between most starts wasn’t tough. “It was more hard to adjust to not playing,” he reasoned.
The Sabres were tentative in naming a starting goalie for tonight’s game against the Dryden Ice Dogs—their seventh meeting in 15 games, including the preseason—after Novak had complained of his mid-section being a bit sore over the weekend.
But Novak insisted after a practice yesterday that he’s ready to play.
“I’m fine. I’m just excited about Dryden,” he stressed, then added with a smile: “They’re a very talkative team.”
Strachan also said defenceman AJ Wensley began to make a name for himself over the weekend.
“He actually came and worked hard all three games, and made a lot of smart decisions with the puck,” Strachan recalled.
“For a guy that was kind of in and out of the lineup, he really stepped up to doing and showing the coaches what he’s capable of, how he’s capable of playing.”
“I just [bore] down and played as hard as I could, tried to stick around here,” Wensley shrugged. “We probably could’ve came out with three wins. We just had some lulls through the complete games, and we let it slip away.”
Chad Reynolds was another Sabre who found time to shine when Shawn Fulton suffered a concussion on “a pretty mean elbow to the head” in Friday night’s game against Marathon.
Reynolds was promoted to Fulton’s place on the second line and responded with his first goal of the season Saturday afternoon.
“I think we’re all right. Our top two lines are still pretty solid, and when our third and fourth line are coming to work, I think we’re in pretty good shape right now,” Strachan said.
In the short-term, the Sabres are just focused on finding a way to battle the Ice Dogs to something other than a loss after dropping every game thus far between the two rivals.