SUPERIOR INTERNATIONAL JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
SIJHL COMMUNICATIONS
MEDIA UPDATE
Release Date: Friday, Feb. 7, 2014
Lucky 7 for Lakers and Iron Rangers Friday
THUNDER BAY, Ont. – A pair of Superior International Junior Hockey League contests Friday saw the winning side score seven times in each of the them as the Fort Frances Lakers slammed the Thunder Bay North Stars 7-1 while the Minnesota Iron Rangers upended the Wisconsin Wilderness 7-3.
FORT FRANCES LAKERS 7 THUNDER BAY NORTH STARS 1 – At the Fort William Gardens league-leading Fort Frances erupted for four first period tallies and never looked back in the one-sided triumph over Thunder Bay.
The Lakers chased North Stars’ starter Eric Mann with markers by Lyndon Lipinski, Bryce Lipinski and Donovan Cousineau by the 13-minute mark of the opening session.
Cam Gobeil then made it 4-0 at 17:13 as he beat Nathanial Dupuis who had come in to replace Mann.
The lone bright spot for Thunder Bay came early in the second as Daniel Del Paggio connected on the power play at 2:24 as he extended a consecutive game point streak to 23 straight outings.
Fort Frances restored their cushion with six seconds left in the middle stanza thanks to a power play blast by Cody Wickstrom.
The Lakers then put the game away in the third getting two more markers from Lyndon Lipinski as he capped off his second straight hat-trick while running a streak in which he has scored at last one goal to six straight contests and a point streak to eight in a row.
Lucas Debenedet chipped in with four assists for the winners while Mason Meyer had a pair of helpers.
Devin Tappenden made 23 stops in picking up the win for the visitors.
MINNESOTA IRON RANGERS 7 WISCONSIN WILDERNESS 3 – Matt O’Dea scored three times, including his SIJHL-best eighth game-winning goal of the season as the Iron Rangers dropped the Wilderness at the Spooner Ice House.
Each side found the back of the net in the opening period with O’Dea striking for Minnesota and Alex Arnold for Wisconsin.
The two teams combined for five more markers in the second with three of them coming off the sticks’ of Iron Rangers’ Evan Erickson, Adam Schoenfeld and O’Dea.
Answering for the Wilderness in the frame were Sawyer Jacobson and Wil Horshak.
Minnesota took control in the third however adding three unanswered efforts to complete the victory with O’Dea finishing his hat-trick early and Connor Mize and Thomas Fazio rounding out the night’s offensive production.
Shots on goal favoured the Rangers 56-32 with Erick Majerle securing the victory and Griffin Strain suffering the loss.