FORT FRANCES, Ont. -- The Fort Frances Lakers got a pair of goals and two assists from Nolan Ross and Dylan Robertson to help them skate to their 11th Superior International Junior Hockey League victory in succession Friday as they doubled up the Thunder Bay North Stars by an 8-4 count in a contest played at “The Duke”, Couchiching First Nation Arena.
Thunder Bay opened the scoring seven and a half minutes into the contest on a Jesse Talakoski effort.
Fort Frances answered that by tacking on three tallies before the first was complete on power play markers by Brandon Zajicek and Nolan Ross sandwiched around a Robertson even strength effort.
Nolan Ross added another, shorthanded, early in the second to make it 4-1.
The North Stars battled back with an extra man effort from Cashen Tighe at 2:20 while Nicholas Nigro supplied his 28th of the season at 4:09.
Andrew Willner came right back for the Lakers 45 seconds later and then helped set-up Robertson for a power play tally at 9:12 while Davis Ross notched another for Fort Frances on the next shift to put an end to Thunder Bay starter Riley Corbin’s night in favour of Eric Mann.
The Lakers’ Christian Ripley and the North Stars Joe Newhouse traded man advantage efforts in the final frame to conclude the night’s scoring.
Cole Tymkin and Nick Minerva had three assists apiece for the winning side.
Pierce Dushenko made 30 saves to record the win for Fort Frances.
Corbin suffered the loss allowing seven on 25 attempts while Mann saves 17 of 18 in relief.
With the result, Fort Frances lowered their magic number to win the SIJHL’s regular season crown to nine.
Any combination of points earned by the Lakers or lost by second place Dryden totalling nine will give them the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Bill Salonen Cup playoffs.
