Staff
Nick Minerva’s offensive break-out apparently has become contagious among his fellow defencemen.
Minerva had five assists to give him eight in the past two games, while Roshen Jaswal notched a hat trick and added a helper, as the Fort Frances Lakers dumped the English River Miners 7-1 on Saturday night in Cochenour.
After a scoreless first period, Andrew Willner struck at 1:06 of the second on a power play—the first of five tallies in the period for the Lakers (19-3-0-1).
It also was the start of a stellar 5-for-8 showing with the man advantage.
Nash Dabb tied it on the man advantage at 4:06—his squad’s only goal in seven power-play chances.
But English River (7-12-1-4) would not be heard from again as the Lakers reeled off six unanswered goals.
Jaswal’s even-strength effort was followed by power-play markers from Cole Tymkin, Christian Ripley, and Jaswal.
That last tally ended the night for Miners’ goalie Reid Kilburn.
Another man-advantage goal by Jaswal against relief goalie Korlan Vader at 4:17 of the third made it 6-1 and also gave newly-acquired Jason Wilson his first point as a Laker.
Julian Uhryniuk closed out the scoring with 1:37 to go.
Brandon Bodnar earned the win with a 30-save performance.
The first-place Lakers will aim for three-straight wins Wednesday night when they cap a three-game road swing against the second-place Dryden GM Ice Dogs (16-5-1-2).
The Ice Dogs only are four points back of the Lakers, with Fort Frances holding a game in hand.
The Lakers’ next home game is this Saturday (Dec. 12) at 7:30 p.m. against the Minnesota Iron Rangers.
