SUPERIOR INTERNATIONAL JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
SIJHL MEDIA UPDATE
Release Date: Friday, Feb. 12, 2016
Lakers win 8th straight
FORT FRANCES, Ont. – The Fort Frances Lakers got a goal and two assists from Andrew Willner to help them defeat the Thunder Bay North Stars 5-2 Friday evening Ice for Kids Arena as they went on to win their eighth Superior International Junior Hockey League contest in a row.
It didn’t take the Lakers long to get on the board as Nick Minerva connected 31 seconds in beating Thunder Bay starter Eric Mann high with a shot from the slot with the lone tally of the frame.
The North Stars countered in the second getting a pair of Bradley Thrower goals under a minute and a half apart to give the visitors a 2-1 lead.
Fort Frances answered with the equalizer at 14:20 as Cole Tymkin notched his 12th of the season.
They then got the eventual game-winner while shorthanded late in the second after Dylan Robertson stole the puck of a Thunder Bay defenceman before skating in a feeding a cross-ice pass than resulted in a tap in for Nolan Ross at 19:36.
The man advantage allowed the home side to make it 4-2 midway through the third as Willner tossed the puck back and forth with Minerva following a face-off win before wristing one past Mann from the right side.
Davis Ross then iced it for Lakers in the latter stages as the blueliner scored at 17:39 for his third of the campaign in nine games since joining the club.
Pierce Dushenko made 29 saves to record his league-leading 22nd win of the season for first place Fort Frances.
Mann was tested 44 times in defeat for the North Stars.