FORT FRANCES – The Kam River Fighting Walleye won’t give up without a fight.
Carter Nailen scored the equalizer in the final minute of the second period on Friday night and Zach Baumann netted the winner 3:26 into the third, delivering a 4-3 win over the host Fort Frances Lakers that kept their hopes of a first-place finish alive in the Superior International Junior Hockey League.
The win, combined with Dryden’s 5-4 regulation loss to the defending champion Sioux Lookout Bombers, leaves the Fighting Walleye six points behind the front-running Dryden Ice Dogs, with four games to go.
Nailen scored twice for Kam River, with Jett Mintenko accounting for the Fighting Walleye’s other goal.
Brady Krentz, Hunter McLean and Noah McPherson, who gave the Lakers a 3-2 lead with 6:54 to play in the second, scored for Fort Frances.
Ashton Sadauskas faced just 17 shots in picking up the win between the pipes. Nolan Koethler made 43 saves in a heroic losing effort.
Kam River improved to 33-12-1 while Fort Frances was leapfrogged by Red Lake for fifth place and slipped to 20-19-8.
Red Lake 6, Thunder Bay 5: The Miners capped a furious late-game comeback when Bryson Carlyle scored a power play goal in overtime to finish off the North Stars, a potential first-round opponent. The Miners trailed 5-3 with less than three minutes to play in regulation. Foxx McColl cut the Stars advantage to one with 2:16 to play and Noah Tenney tied things up at 19:09 of the third. Connor Larrett scored twice and added an assist for Thunder Bay, who hosted the contest at Fort William Gardens. Carlyle had a goal and two helpers for the Lakers.
Sioux Lookout 5, Dryden 4. The Bombers held off a late challenge by the Ice Dogs to earn a one-goal win. Sioux Lookout led 5-2 with seven minutes to lay before Carson Devine and Karson Kerbes scored back-to-back tallies to cut their lead to one. Tait Howell and Sage Roberts had a pair of goals each for Sioux Lookout.
