Dan Falloon
The OPP might be looking into laying some arson charges because there certainly was a barnburner last night at the Ice For Kids Arena.
The Fort Frances Lakers (8-23-4) lost their third-straight game, falling 7-4 to the K&A Wolverines (14-22-5), who now lead the Lakers by 13 points for fourth place.
The Lakers were dangerous at some points but soft at others, and that inconsistency cost them, said coach Wayne Strachan.
“You can’t play for 35 minutes and expect to win a hockey game,” he stressed.
Playing their first game since trading leading scorer Colton Kennedy and defenceman Conner Foster, the Lakers allowed the Wolverines to jump out to an early lead.
Less than three minutes into the game, David McCaig deposited a rebound with just three seconds left in a Lakers’ penalty for too many men on the ice.
K&A then made it 2-0 1:23 later when Travis Weller floated a shot over Lakers’ goalie Jameson Shortreed.
Fort Frances struck back 25 seconds into the second period when Cody Edwards wired a no-doubter over the left shoulder of Wolverine goalie Eric Swanick.
Jordan Carne and newly-acquired Matt Caulfield drew the assists.
A little bit of the rough stuff helped the Lakers tie the score. After Jaret Leclair duked and downed Weller at 14:35, Byron Katapaytuk hopped on a free puck and beat Swanick.
The comeback would be for naught, however, as the Lakers fell into some penalty trouble, leaving K&A with a 4-on-3 advantage.
The extra space gave Matt Hunter enough room to put a rebound through Shortreed’s five-hole to stake the visitors to a 3-2 lead.
The Wolverines regained their two-goal lead 59 seconds into the third when Dustin Roy, acquired at the trade deadline, hit the twine behind Shortreed.
The goal came moments after Edwards’ had blazed past K&A’s defenders and ripped off a shot that Swanick was able to swat out of play.
K&A then made it 5-2 at 6:51 of the third when Rory McKie converted Len Pelletier’s pass on a 2-on-1.
The Lakers were not about to roll over, though. Newly-minted captain Tyler Stevenson knocked a Cody Hasbargen rebound past Swanick to pull the hosts within 5-3 at 8:32.
Katapaytuk then netted his controversial second goal of the game.
He snapped a bullet past Swanick at 10:45 but the net was knocked off its moorings right afterward. After a brief consultation, the officials determined Katapaytuk’s goal would stand, leaving Fort Frances trailing by just one.
But K&A’s Aaron Ross wanted no more to do with the Lakers’ comeback, beating Shortreed just 16 seconds after Katapaytuk’s marker.
Hartwell Marable then put the game out of reach at 13:40, backhanding a Roy rebound into the cage for K&A’s third power-play tally of the night.
Swanick made 19 saves to earn the win while Shortreed turned away 27 Wolverine shots for the loss.
The Lakers were outshot for the seventh-straight game—posting a 2-5 record over that games.
They haven’t outshot a team since Dec. 12, when they fired 38 shots to the Wolverines’ 30 in an 8-5 loss.
With many of K&A’s goals coming from in close last night, Strachan made clear the need for his charges to play a better game in their own zone.
“We’ve got to start taking pride in our defensive game,” he remarked.
“I thought we did a good job below the goal line [but] we were in chaos in the top end of our own end, with guys circling, not taking the body, and watching the puck instead of knowing where their guys are.
“That cost us a few goals.”
Strachan also felt Shortreed didn’t play as well as needed, especially with the game on the line.
“I hate to place the blame on Jameson Shortreed, but most of those goals in the third period weren’t very pretty,” he said.
Off the ice, the forward that Fort Frances acquired from the SJHL’s Melville Millionaires in the Colton Kennedy trade has decided not to report here, meaning the Lakers will receive another player as compensation at the start of next season.
The Lakers are back in action tomorrow night in Dryden, then will return home Tuesday (Jan. 19) to host the Sioux Lookout Flyers.
