Shortreed stellar in Lakers’ return

March 18, 2011 was the last time Emo native Jameson Shortreed had played between the pipes for the Fort Frances Lakers.
But the 19-year-old looked like he never left last night, turning aside 35 shots to help the Lakers earn a 4-1 over the Minnesota Iron Rangers at the Ice For Kids Arena.

“It feels really good to get a win in my first game back here,” said Shortreed, who was acquired by the Lakers in a trade with the Drumheller Dragons on Wednesday.
“I had a little bit of nerves,” he admitted. “But I also had a sense of comfortability with being back where I had played before, so it was easy to settle into the game after the first couple of minutes.
“Our team played well and the guys all stepped up and played big in the third period, and that was big for us,” Shortreed added.
Last night’s win was quite a contrast to the Lakers’ two previous home wins last weekend as it took them a while to control the game like they had during their convincing triumphs over the Minnesota Wilderness and Thunder Bay North Stars.
“We’ll take the two points, but I thought that our effort was similar to what we had in our loss to Dryden on Monday,” noted Lakers’ head coach and general manager Wayne Strachan.
“We were very sloppy, we didn’t have a lot of jump, and we weren’t really as intense as it had been during our four-game win streak,” he added.
“But nonetheless, we found a way to win.”
Brendan Cawston gave the Lakers a 1-0 lead early in the first period when his shot beat Iron Rangers’ goalie Chase Hollander. But Gus Karkinen solved Shortreed a few minutes later to tie the score.
It took until the middle of the second period for the Lakers to retake the lead. Colton Spicer took a nice feed from Jordan Christianson to net his eighth goal of the season.
Third-period tallies by Davis Smith and Jon Carlson rounded out the scoring.
The Lakers (5-4-0-1) now will prepare for a rematch against the Ice Dogs here Monday at 7:30 p.m., where they’ll look to exact revenge following a 7-5 loss in Dryden this past Monday.
“Our team defence, as a whole, has to be a lot better,” stressed Christianson, who led Lakers last night with three assists.
“Any time you let in that many goals in a game . . . something’s not right.
“So we just need to focus on that, and then we can worry about scoring when we get into their zone,” he reasoned.
In other news, the Lakers announced the completion of three transactions after last night’s game.
The first saw the team officially announce a deal with the Abitibi Eskimos of the NOJHL, who had picked up forward Ryan Wildman in exchange for a player development fee.
Wildman, who had 57 points for the Lakers last season, has played in two games for his local club and earned an assist in a 6-2 win over Kirkland Lake on Saturday.
The Lakers also officially completed a deal with the Elliot Lake Bobcats of the NOJHL for forward Brennan Nesrallah, whose playing rights were traded last week in exchange for a player development fee.
Nesrallah, who played just two games for the Lakers, has yet to earn a point in two games for the Bobcats.
The third trade the Lakers made saw them deal blueliner Tyler Tuneberg to the Iron Rangers in exchange for fellow defenceman Cody Wickstrom.
Tuneberg had played in six game for the Lakers, collecting one assist prior to yesterday’s deal, while Wickstrom is coming off a 13-point campaign with the Marquette Electricians last season.