Joey Payeur
Wayne Strachan saw the signs of trouble coming a mile away—or, more accurately, about 33 hours ahead of time.
A less-than-impressive practice last Thursday had the Fort Frances Lakers’ general manager and head coach worried ahead of his team’s two-game home series with the English River Miners.
Those concerns came to bear after the Lakers surrendered a 3-1 lead in the third period Friday night to lose 4-3 to the SIJHL’s basement-dwellers.
The Lakers did turn things around just in time the following night—eking out a 2-1 overtime triumph.
“The Miners have made some moves that have made them a competitive team every night,” noted Strachan.
With the split, the Lakers (18-7-1) retook sole possession of first place—one point up on the Thunder Bay North Stars (17-8-2), with Fort Frances holding a game in hand.
“Our practice Thursday was awful and to me that led over to our game on Friday,” Strachan said.
“The three goals in the third were as a result of not competing.
“Saturday, I thought we played well and the difference in the hockey game was [Miners’ goalie Greg] Harney,” added Strachan.
“He made some big saves, key saves, and gave them a chance to be in the game.”
Strachan said he felt English River earned the win Friday.
“At times, they outplayed us, they got key saves from their goaltender, and they took advantage of our lackluster effort on defence,” he reasoned.
The win also helped the Lakers jump three spots to No. 13 in the CJHL’s weekly top 20 rankings.
Wyatt Cota ended Saturday’s game at 1:28 of overtime with English River’s Landen Matechuk in the box for holding—giving the Lakers what Strachan termed a “lucky” power play.
“They were working the puck around, and Wyatt came to the top and walked to the middle in the high slot and ripped a slapshot mid-net on the glove side,” he recalled.
“I thought Harney had it, but he must have bobbled it and it went in,” added Strachan.
“We talked throughout the game to keep putting pucks to the net, that we needed a lucky one to help us, and, in the end, that is how we win the hockey game.”
Alex Maticic’s power-play marker at 18:49 of the first gave the Miners the early lead.
But that would be the last puck to elude recently-acquired goalie Pierce Dushenko, who rebounded from his losing debut Friday to earn his first SIJHL win.
“Probably two reasons stick out to me,” Strachan said about going with the new netminder on back-to-back nights.
“First, we wanted to see him in action,” he noted.
“Second, we wanted to let him know it wasn’t his fault we lost Friday night,” Strachan added.
“He was hung out to dry more than once and we wanted to get him back in the net to get his confidence going.
“If it would have been the other way around, we would have made the same decision.”
Lucas DeBenedet tied the game with the only goal of the second period on a set-up from Mason Meyer and Bryson Jasper.
The win was costly, though, as the Lakers will be without Meyer and Spicer on a day-to-day basis, with both nursing upper-body injuries.
Fort Frances also played Saturday without forward Matt Vela, who was serving the first of a two-game suspension for checking to the head/neck area of an opponent the previous night.
In Friday’s game, the Lakers responded to Maticic’s first-period power-play goal with three man-advantage tallies of their own in the second.
Spicer, Nick Minerva, and Miles Nolan all beat Harney, with Dylan Kooner assisting on Spicer’s and Nolan’s goals.
But some marvelous saves by Harney gave his team momentum to come all the way back in the third.
Aaron Beauchamp made it a one-goal game on a breakaway before Richard Dartnall pulled the Miners even less than two minutes later.
Eric Champagne then gave English River (5-17-3) a reason to break out the bubbly when Dushenko got too little of his shot from the slot for the game-winner.
The Lakers begin a three-game road trip Friday in Dryden against the Ice Dogs, then will be in Thunder Bay the next night to face the North Stars.
The Lakers’ next home game is set for Saturday, Dec. 20 against Thunder Bay, which will be their last contest before two-week holiday break.
