By Brett Richter
Over the past several weeks, the overall feel in the Lumberjack locker room has been changing – kind of like the caterpillar slowly turning into the butterfly. Many of the early season struggles that had faced the Lumberjacks, are finally becoming lessons of the past and a new brand of Jack’s hockey is building through its own metamorphosis. Emphasizing overall team quickness, a growing physical presence, and a new mental focus, Head Coach Doug Lein brought his Lumberjacks roster to the rink for two tough weekend matches against the league leading, Fort Frances Lakers.
The opening six minutes of the period found the Lumberjacks playing strong, even, five-on-five hockey with the number one team in the SIJHL. At the eight-minute mark of the first period, the Jacks grabbed some early momentum when Owen DeBrody poked his third goal of the season past the Lakers netminder for an early one goal lead. Hard work from Tim Hanulik and Christian Storey earned each player an assist on the DeBrody goal. The Jacks held the lead for more than five minutes before a defensive breakdown allowed the Lakers a wide-open look at the backside of the home team net. The period ended with the score tied 1-1.
Sensing a slight pause in the effort of the Lumberjacks, Coach Lein’s intermission talk demanded the Jacks return to the form and focus shown in the opening 10 minutes of the game. Taking heed, the Jacks began the second moving their feet and digging pucks. The Lakers shot a quick one past Ironwood netminder, Gavin Covrig, at the seven-minute mark tilting the scoreboard in their favor. But the Lumberjacks were unphased. With about four minutes left in the second, the Jacks popped in two goals in 14 seconds. Tyler Cavar got his first power play goal of the season with assists from Jack Hanna and Tyki Babcock. 14 seconds later, Felix St-Onge bombed a slap slot from the left point after a nice assist from Jack Hanna. With the Jacks leading by one goal, the Lakers forced the home team into an untimely penalty putting their power play unit back on the ice. The Jacks gave up a late power-play goal sending both teams to the locker room with the scored tied 3-3.
Although the score didn’t change during the entire 20 minutes of the third period, the momentum certainly did. The Lumberjacks were forced to kill off three penalties in the opening 12 minutes and then were twice on the powerplay in the remaining eight minutes. But neither team was able to capitalize on the man advantage sending the Lumberjacks to their third overtime game in the last five home contests. Unfortunately for Lumberjack fans, this overtime was short lived as a Lakers shot found the back of the twine just 27 seconds into the extra session. The Lumberjacks took the one point for the tie with the final score on the board reading 3-4 in favor of the Lakers.
Jan 31 – Seeing many positives coming out of Friday’s game, one would have thought the Jack’s Saturday pre-game locker room would be jovial. But the realization that the small details needed to be addressed and cleaned up, made for a focused pre-game atmosphere. Coach Lein emphasized a desire for improvement in key areas on the home ice surface. After an inspired pre-game warm up session, the home Lumberjacks took the ice for a second chance against the league leading Lakers.
After speaking with both coaching staffs, neither was pleased with their respective teams performance at the end of the initial 20 minutes. At the three-minute mark, an errant clearing pass by the Lumberjacks led to an early goal by the Lakers. Other than a hooking penalty on the home team with two minutes remaining, nothing but the clock changed on the Civic Center scoreboard. The lack luster period ended with the Lakers up 0-1.
The second period nearly mirrored the opening session with an early goal and a late penalty. But the team assignments were different. With five minutes gone in the second, Ironwood Captain Will Porter tipped a great shot past the Laker netminder knotting the scoreboard at one. Logan Carey took the initial shot from the point for his fifth assist of the year. After doing the majority of the work on the play, the third assist went to Jack Carruthers. With nearly two periods complete, a very even game was tied at one.
Although technically still in the second period, the last 2 ½ minutes of the second period were played much like the entire third period. The referees found their whistles and exercised them often, calling 11 penalties during the remainder of the game. A penalty called late in the second led to a short-handed goal by the Lakers, ending the second period with the Jacks down 1-2.
The Lakers added an early third period goal at the two-minute mark with one of the Lumberjacks in the penalty box. The next six whistles were for penalties including the awarding of an unsuccessful penalty shot to the Lakers. At the 17-minute mark, the Lakers added an insurance goal stretching the lead to three goals. With 17 seconds remaining in the contest, Jack Hanna tabulated his 10th goal of the season while on the power play cementing the final score at 2-4. Assists on Hanna goal were credited to Ryland Elsenpeter and Logan Carey.
Ironwood goaltender Connor Doyle played another strong game in net stopping 44 of 48 shots on goal. The Lumberjacks have only two weekends of home games remaining on the regular schedule. With some early season game postponements, please keep updated for additional games in the next few weeks. The Lumberjacks return to home ice the weekend of February 27 and 28 against the Sioux Lookout Bombers.