OLIVER PAIPOONGE – Goals aren’t easy to come by these days for opponents of the Kam River Fighting Walleye.
Eric Vanska made 29 stops on Thursday night as the Fighting Walleye collected their third straight shutout – the previous two recorded by Austin Madge – and ran their shutout streak to 206 minutes, their last goal against coming eight days ago against Fort Frances Lakers, their opponent in the team’s latest whitewashing.
The 19-year-old Thunder Bay native, who has a 7-2-1 record with a 2.08 goals against average and a .934 save percentage, picked up his second shutout of the season, and said after not being in the lineup last weekend, he texted Madge to ask him about the team’s defensive corps.
“He said they were rock solid for him and they basically did the same thing for me today. I loved it,” said Vanska, a graduate of the Thunder Bay Kings program.
“I think one thing we’ve struggled with, especially against bigger teams like team like Dryden, they take away our eyes really well, but our defence was boxing them out today and I could see the puck really well.”
Having a tandem like Vanska and Madge between the pipes is a luxury for the Fighting Walleye (20-3-1), said second-year coach Matt Valley, his team winning its 10th in a row on Thursday, a 4-0 decision over the Dave Allison-coached Lakers.
“People always say 1A and 1B. I say one and one,” Valley said. “Eric can be a starter on any team in this league and so can Austin, obviously. Their stats speak for themselves, but more importantly their big parts of our team in the dressing room. They’re two guys who always step up and volunteer in the community and they’re good people.
“To have goaltenders that the players respect and like and play for is a big thing. We’re built from that back end out. We have a ton of good defencemen as well.”
The Fighting Walleye, as hot as they’ve been, were facing a team that was equally as cold. The Lakers are buried in the basement of the Superior International Junior Hockey League standings, losers of nine straight heading into Thursday night’s contest at the Norwest Arena.
They’ve won just twice in 19 outings in 2021-22, scoring just 33 goals over that span.
Captain Zach Fortin got the Fighting Walleye on the board at 13:09 of the first, and they doubled their lead with just one second on the clock in the opening period, Jeremy Dunmore depositing his 10th of the season behind Fort Frances rookie goaltender Mason Meyer as time ran out.
Alex Enegren extended the lead with his 15th just past the midway point of the second and Kyle Lamoureux wrapped up the scoring, crashing through a pair of Lakers defenders before making a nifty move on Meyer, stuffing the puck home on the backhand.
Kam River takes to the road on Friday for the first of two against the Wisconsin Lumberjacks. The Lakers continue their Thunder Bay stay with a pair this weekend against the Thunder Bay North Stars at Fort William Gardens.
