Staff
The Fort Frances Thunderhawks couldn’t strike the Manitoba Lightning twice over the weekend.
The local senior ‘AAA’ squad earned a 4-1 victory here Saturday night, but their comeback fell short yesterday as the visitors held on for a 6-5 win.
The Lightning blitzed the T’hawks in the early going yesterday, jumping out to a 4-1 lead after the first.
Ross Johnson had the lone Fort Frances goal of the frame.
The T’hawks started to fight back early in the second as Sean Councillor buried a shot that had come out to him in the slot just 82 seconds in.
The hosts then climbed to within one at the 6:30 mark when Jake Esselink took a feed and ripped one home blocker side at 6:30.
But the Lightning restored their two-goal advantage at 8:20 with a screened shorthanded snipe to goalie Jay Flatt’s glove side.
The see-saw battle continued as Tyler Barker hustled into the Lightning zone to collect a puck to the left of the Manitoba net.
Barker then put on the brakes, spun around, and centered to a wide-open Trevor Abraham, who made no mistake by roofing the puck at 13:15.
Manitoba went up 6-4 before the period was out, however, jamming a puck from underneath Flatt.
Then with 47 seconds left in the frame, Ian Lockman slammed home a Tom Biondich shot.
But Fort Frances could climb no closer as there was no scoring in the third.
It was a different story Saturday night as Myles Kuharski, A.J. Tucker, Lockman, and Rustyn Dolyny all scored, and goalie Chris Medicine stood tall between the pipes, to help the T’hawks nab their first win of the 2010-11 season.
Fort Frances never trailed, opening up a 2-0 lead before Manitoba got on the scoreboard.
However, Lockman’s tally restored the two-goal advantage less than a minute later before icing the game in the third.
The T’hawks will be back in action next Tuesday (Dec. 28) when they face the Fort Frances Lakers at 6:45 p.m.
Then they’ll resume senior league play Jan. 11 when the Kenora Thistles visit the ’52 Canadians Arena for an 8 p.m. start.
