FORT FRANCES, Ont. -- The Fort Frances Lakers scored twice in the final minute, but couldn’t get the third and dropped the first half of a weekend series to the Thunder Bay North Stars.
Led by a pair of first-period goals from Nicholas Nigro, the visiting Stars scored a 6-5 win, their fourth straight to open the Superior International Junior Hockey League season.
Nigro’s six goals place him second in the league in scoring, two behind Dryden’s Eric Stout.
Thunder Bay scored two goals apiece in each period on Saturday night.
But it was the Lakers who struck first in the second, Matt Cheetham and Jared Virtanen, beating Nathaniel Dupuis to even the score 2-2 nine minutes in.
Zack Glowatch put the Stars back in front 42 seconds after Virtanen’s tally, but the lead was short-lived. Tanner Garnham tied it up again at 12:06.
Thunder Bay took the lead for good three minutes later, Brad Thrower beating Brandon Bodnar to send the North Stars to the third leading 4-3.
Kris Hamlin and Shayne McKay scored back-to-back goals three minutes apart in the opening five minutes of the final frame to extend the visitor’s lead to three.
Maverick Lynes and Matt Tustin connected at 19:12 and 19:55 to close the gap to one.
The North Stars are 4-0-0 while the defending champion Lakers remained winless at 0-3-0.
