Over a thousand people packed the Ice For Kids Arena in the Memorial Sports Centre to see the first game of the SIJHL finals between the hometown Fort Frances Lakers and the Thunder Bay North Stars.
The Lakers found the back of the net first, with Tegan Wrolstad scoring a goal just over five minutes into the game.
Carter Deschamps put Fort Frances up by two goals when he scored roughly 15 minutes into the first period.
From that moment, and all through the second period and into the third, Lakers goaltender Cody Bates and North Start netminder Conna Dunham-Fox stood tall between the pipes. No goals were scored for well over 30 minutes of play.
The North Stars found their scoring touch in the third period, while the Lakers starting to wrack up costly penalties.
Fort Frances players found themselves in the box 5 times in the third period alone. The north stars were also given a couple penalties in the third as well.
Thunder Bay’s first goal of the night came on the power play. Mitch Vanderwey scored just over 7 minutes in to the third to cut the Lakers lead in half.
Less than two minutes later the North Stars tied it up off the stick of Lucas Bertolin.
Just over two minutes after Thunder Had evened things up, they pulled out in from with an 4 on 3 power play goal coming from Matthew Bertolin.
The Lakers proved to be resilient. Judd Pesch scored with just under 20 seconds left in regulation to send the game into overtime.
Both teams battled in the extra frame, but in the end the North Stars prevailed. Eric Sheriff buried the deciding goal with just under 4 minutes to go in the first overtime.
The Lakers will be looking to even the series in game 2 on home ice.
