FORT FRANCES, Ont. -- On Saturday the Thunder Bay North Stars had a much closer result than the night before but still fell short on the score sheet.
Dylan Robertson scored the lone goal in a shootout to give the Fort Frances Lakers a 5-4 victory over Thunder Bay at the Ice For Kids Arena in a battle between the top two teams in the Superior International Junior Hockey League.
Fort Frances (22-7-1) extends its lead at the top of the league table to five points over Thunder Bay (18-11-4), while also having three games in hand.
The Lakers jumped out to an early 3-0 first period lead with Wyatt Cota, Miles Nolan and Bryson Jasper all beating North Stars goalie P.D. Melgoza.
The two teams traded goals in the first 73 seconds of the middle frame, with Matthias Gardiman getting Thunder Bay on the board before Colton Spicer answered back for the Lakers.
The North Stars were able to trim the deficit before the end of the period, with both Avery Siau and Tim Cavar finding the back of the net to trail 4-3.
Nicholas Nigro had the only goal in the third period, striking with a little more than five minutes remaining in regulation to knot things up.
Melgoza and Lakers goalie Pierce Dushenko matched each other through the first four rounds of the shootout with neither surrendering a goal.
That ended when Robertson finally broke the deadlock and Dushenko rewarded his scorer by turning aside an attempt Thunder Bay shooter Kenny Turner to end the contest.
The league is now on their holiday break. The North Stars are in action next on Jan. 3 when they hit the road to face the English River Miners.
