Oliver Paipoonge, ON – The Kam River Fighting Walleye prevailed over a steadily improving Fort Frances Lakers squad, by a score of 7-4.
The back-and-forth scoring started with Trever Sanderson giving the visitors the first lead of the game, 7 minutes into the contest. Sanderson took a Ryker Watt pass on a two on one and buried it for his 7th of the season. 3 minutes later, defenceman Brydon Bell roofed the puck over Lakers ‘tender Brenden Stroble to even the game up for the Fish. Then with just 5 seconds remaining in the opening frame, Ethan Lang tipped home a Josh Pufahl powerplay point shot to give the Walleye a 2-1 lead heading into the first intermission.
Ryker Watt tied the game up for the Lakers, off a nice pass from Sanderson, 5 minutes into the second stanza. After Kennan Reyelts ripped a wrist shot to give Kam River the lead again, Daxton Lang finished off a nice passing play with Jeremy Dunmore and Max Leduc to stake his club to a 4-2 lead. But the Lakers showed no signs of quitting. First, Fort Frances leading scorer Ryker Watt scored his second of the night to close the gap to 1, with just over a minute to play in the middle frame.
Then, just 43 seconds into the third, Sanderson blew a top corner wrist shot past Walleye netminder Eric Vanska to even the game up. The home team would once again respond quickly however, as Dax Lang was sprung on a breakaway just a minute later, and the 18-year-old from White City, Saskatchewan would make no mistake, popping his second tally of the night to hand the Walleye the lead for good. Riley Borody, with a nice deflection in front, and Anthony Oviedo, into an empty net, would round out the scoring for the Walleye.
Eric Vanska stopped 23 of 27 shots to record his league-leading 25th win of the campaign.
The Walleye head out on a 3 games in 3 days road trip this weekend, with a stop in Sioux Lookout for Friday and Saturday night games, followed by a trip to Red Lake for a 2 PM Sunday matinee start against the Miners.
Fort Frances makes a return visit to the Lakehead to take on the North Stars on Saturday and Sunday afternoon.
G and G Excavating 3 Stars
3rd – Jeremy Dunmore KRW
2nd – Ryker Watt FFL
1st – Daxton Lang KRW