Joey Payeur
Colton Spicer politely declined any post-game handshakes for fear of spreading what looked like a rather serious cold.
Despite his best intentions, he still sent the Thunder Bay North Stars home feeling sick.
Spicer completed his hat trick with just 41.8 seconds left in regulation time to lift the Fort Frances Lakers to a wild 6-5 win over the Stars in SIJHL action here Saturday night.
“That was a huge win for us tonight after an unlucky loss in Dryden,” Spicer said, referring to the Lakers’ (3-1) first loss of the season last Wednesday against the GM Ice Dogs.
“We came back strong and we wanted to win,” he noted.
The North Stars led 4-2 in the second period, chasing Lakers’ starting goalie Devin Tappenden to the bench after allowing a couple of soft goals in the second period.
But Spicer kick-started the rally with a power-play point blast at 18:48 of the second.
Then after Matt Vela’s man-advantage marker 39 seconds into the third, Spicer stole the puck off a Stars’ defenceman and unloaded a quick shot that fooled Nathaniel Dupuis only 38 seconds after that for a 5-4 lead.
Brandon Kaarela tied the game on the power play with 1:13 to go just seconds after Dupuis was pulled for an extra attacker.
But just over 30 seconds later, Spicer got control of the puck in the right face-off circle in Thunder Bay’s zone.
The Fort native fired a shot that caromed off the shin pad of Stars’ defenceman Joe Newhouse in front of the Thunder Bay net and past a surprised Dupuis to give the Lakers (3-1) two wins a week apart against Thunder Bay (1-2).
“I just threw it at the net in case something happened and it went off [Newhouse’s] shin pad,” said Spicer, who now has four goals and leads the SIJHL with nine points.
“When you work hard, the bounces come your way,” noted Lakers’s head coach and general manager Wayne Strachan, whose team went 3-for-6 on the power play Saturday night.
“The guys showed good character and stuck with it,” he added.
Jarred Taylor (although the goal appeared to be Miles Nolan’s) and Mason Meyer had the other Lakers’ goals.
Avery Siau, Nicholas Nigro, Brett Wolframe (penalty shot), and Newhouse replied for Thunder Bay.
Ryan Ferguson, who took over for Tappenden, made 14 saves in relief to earn the victory.
Dupuis was the hard-luck loser despite making 30 saves.
Lakers’ blueliner Sam Schultz was dynamite in his debut—rushing the puck with ease and setting up Meyer’s goal in the second period.
But the squad, already without suspended defenceman Gordon Campbell and injured forward Bryson Jasper (wrist), lost the services of two more players Saturday.
Forward Carter Chorney (mouth injury due to a high stick) and defenceman Ryan Reeves (foot injury after getting hit with a slapshot) both had to leave the game and did not return.
Their status is questionable for tomorrow night’s game against the host English River Miners (0-3).
The Lakers then return home this Friday to face Dryden at 7:30 p.m.
