SUPERIOR INTERNATIONAL JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
SIJHL COMMUNICATIONS
MEDIA UPDATE
Release Date: Friday, Feb. 14, 2014
Lakers and Ice Dogs win Friday
THUNDER BAY, Ont. – A pair of games in the Superior International Junior Hockey League Friday saw the Fort Frances Lakers upend the Minnesota Iron Rangers 6-2 while the Dryden Ice Dogs defeated the Wisconsin Wilderness 5-3.
FORT FRANCES LAKERS 6 MINNESOTA IRON RANGERS 2 – At Ice for Kids Arena in Fort Frances the Lakers received a second period natural hat-trick from Mason Meyer as part of a four-point evening in the victory over Minnesota.
The Iron Rangers took the early lead as Eric Madison found the back of the net 2:21 into the contest.
Fort Frances responded before the first period was complete getting tallies from Lyndon Lipinski and Patrick Sofer to go up 2-1 after 20 minutes.
It was the Meyer show in the middle session as he struck three times in a span of seven minutes and 42 seconds to put the Lakers in full control.
Donovan Cousineau made it 6-1 early in the third before the Iron Rangers’ Evan Erickson added a shorthanded effort to round out the night’s scoring.
The SIJHL’s leading scorer in Lucas Debenedet picked up a pair of assists for Fort Frances giving him a league-high 100 points on the season.
Shots on goal favoured the Lakers 44-25 with Devin Tappenden picking up the win and Erick Majerle suffering the loss.
DRYDEN ICE DOGS 5 WISCONSIN WILDERNESS 3 – The visiting Ice Dogs put the brakes on a four-game winless run as they defeated the Wilderness at the Spooner Ice House.
Wisconsin opened the scoring via the power play as Austin Anderson found the mark at 5:03.
Dryden countered with tallies from Chris Belhumeur and Derek McPhail to go up one through the first period.
The lone effort of the middle session came off the stick of the Ice Dogs’ Dane Feeney who scored 29 seconds into the frame.
Wisconsin battled back to tie in the third on goals by Garrett Nelson and Shane Billings with half a period to play.
However just over 30 seconds after Billings’ equalizer, McPhail fired home the game-winner to put Dryden up for good.
McPhail added another at 15:29 to finish off a hat-trick for the Ice Dogs who ran out the clock from there to secure the win.
Joakim Justras finished the night with 30 saves to record the victory for the Ice Dogs who put 29 pucks on Griffin Strain in the Wilderness net as he picked up the loss.