THUNDER BAY – The Fort Frances Lakers may be the last-place team in the Superior International Junior Hockey League, but they don’t take nights off.
On Wednesday they gave the first-place Kam River Fighting Walleye all they could handle, but after tying the game 4-4 in the opening minutes of the third, ran out of steam as the home side scored three unanswered to close out the contest en route to a 7-4 win.
Daxton Lang, with his second of the night, put the Fighting Walleye ahead for good at 1:51 of the final frame, just 68 seconds after the Lakers Trevor Sanderson tied the game.
Brydon Bell and Ethan Lang staked Kam River to a 2-1 lead after the first, the Fighting Walleye out-shooting their opponent 23-5.
Ryker Watt scored twice in the third for the Lakers, giving him 21 on the season, sandwiching goals by Kam River’s Kennan Reyelts and Daxton Lang, the Fighting Walleye taking a 4-3 lead into the intermission.
Eric Vanska made 23 saves to earn the win, while Brenden Stroble was tagged with the loss, good on 58 of 65 shots fired in his direction.
Dryden 5, Thunder Bay 2: Brady Frattinger scored the game-winning goal with 6:39 to go in regulation to lead the Ice Dogs to a home-ice win. Ben Hackl and Bryce Benfield capped off the scoring in the third, with Ryland Maier and McLaren Paulsen also scoring for the Ice Dogs. Colby Feist, who evened the score 1-1 at 12:07 of the second, and Jamie Fuchs, who tied it 2-2 just 36 seconds into the third, scored for the North Stars.
