Staff
Nathaniel Dupuis decided to stick around until the end this time, which was a good thing for the Thunder Bay North Stars.
Dupuis made 32 saves to backstop the North Stars to a 4-3 victory over the Fort Frances Lakers yesterday on the final day of the annual SIJHL Showcase in Hoyt Lakes, Mn.
The Lakers (30-8-0-1) saw their 13-game winning streak come to an end, as did their run of five-straight wins over Thunder Bay (23-16-4).
Surprisingly, it came at the hands of a goalie who, the last time the Lakers saw him, figuratively threw in the towel by yanking himself out of the game after giving up five goals in the third period of a 9-0 blowout here Jan. 16.
Dupuis was most impressive in the first period yesterday—keeping the game tied 1-1 after 20 minutes despite the Lakers outshooting the North Stars 19-4.
Wyatt Cota’s power-play goal opened the scoring at 12:38 before Cashen Tighe replied for Thunder Bay at 19:06 against Nathan Park, who suffered his first loss as a Laker.
He also gave up the most goals in one outing since joining the squad in mid-December.
The North Stars flipped the script in the second, holding a 13-4 advantage in shots and lighting the lamp twice in a span of 1:36 on power-play markers by Nicholas Nigro and Matthias Gardiman (two-man advantage).
Fort Frances took five of the six minor penalties in the period.
Miles Nolan drew the Lakers to within 3-2 at 11:11 of the third, but Avery Siau put the Stars back up by two only 24 seconds later.
A.J. Kapcheck then tallied on the power-play at 17:32 to give the Lakers hope, but they were unable to net the equalizer.
The win moved second-place Thunder Bay a little closer to the league-leading Lakers, but Fort Frances remains 11 points in front while also holding four games in hand.
After a rare weekend off, the Lakers return to Hoyt Lakes on Tuesday to face the Minnesota Iron Rangers
Then they’ll visit Thunder Bay the following night (Feb. 4) before heading to Dryden on Feb. 7 against the GM Ice Dogs.
The Lakers’ next home game is set for Feb. 10 at 7:30 p.m. at “The Duke” (Couchiching Arena) against Dryden.
