Muskies slip to fourth at Winnipeg tourney

For coming so close to getting a shot at the title, Muskie boys’ hockey head coach Shane Bliss wasn’t exactly doing handsprings.
“We could have played better,” a disappointed Bliss said after the black-and-gold finished with a 3-2 loss to the Oak Park Raiders in Sunday’s bronze-medal game of the Winnipeg High School Hockey League Tournament of Champions.
“We didn’t get quite the results we were looking for,” he added. “We were two inches away from getting into the final, and then we get scored on during a 3-on-3 situation right off a face-off in overtime.”
That 4-3 loss to the Carman Cougars on Saturday ended the Muskies’ title aspirations in heart-breaking fashion, but to nowhere near the extent of the pain felt by those associated with the St. John’s-Ravenscourt Eagles team.
The Eagles were leading Fort High 1-0 after two periods in their second game of the tournament Thursday night when word reached the arena that 16-year-old Travis Price, who played for the school’s junior varsity team, had died during a game earlier in the day at another rink.
Price collapsed on the bench and died after coming off the ice during the first period of a game against College Pierre Elliot Trudeau at the East End Community Centre in Transcona.
The Winnipeg medical examiner’s office deemed the death to be from natural causes which were cardiac-related.
As soon as the senior Eagles learned what had happened, they immediately forfeited the game to the Muskies and soon after withdrew from the tournament out of respect to Price and his family.
Their place was taken by John Taylor School (Winnipeg).
“We were in shock,” Bliss said about being informed between periods of the incident by one of the Eagles’ coaches. “It’s a tragedy. You feel terrible for the other team, and to see people noticeably upset and emotional in the stands.
“I don’t know what they’re going through,” he added. “I don’t even want to imagine it happening to one of our own guys. You grow so close to them.”
St. John’s-Ravenscourt wasn’t the only team at the tournament which had to deal with human loss.
Bliss said after talking with Carman’s coach following the semi-finals, he learned a recently-retired teacher from Carman High School who had close ties with many of the Cougar players also had died over the weekend.
The coach told Bliss he was uncertain if he even would have enough of a team left to field a line-up for Sunday’s final against King’s Edgehill School (Windsor, N.S.).
But the Cougars showed great heart in overcoming the odds and defeating the East Coast crew 2-1 in the championship game.
And Bliss added the Edge Mountaineers team from Calgary suffered the loss of one of its players to unknown causes on Dec. 27, but decided to soldier ahead and come to the tournament anyway.
King’s Edgehill School, the provincial champs eight of the past 10 years, beat the Muskies 6-2 in their opening game Thursday afternoon.
Mike Niskala and Fred Schwerter traded goals in the first period before the Nova Scotians chalked up three by Seppe Susmans, Thomas Cook, and Drew Mitchell in the second to pull away.
Brandon MacDonald and Chris Humphries rounded out the scoring for King’s Edgehill in the third, with Blake Dalton making 19 stops between the pipes to earn the win.
Niskala added his second goal of the game with 56 seconds to play. Matt Gamsby turned aside 32 shots for the Muskies.
Ryan Reaves had the only goal for St. John’s-Ravenscourt in the forfeited game Thursday night, with Neil Dissanayake facing just 11 Muskie shots through two periods.
Jason Green made 19 saves for Fort High before the game was called.
With second place in Pool East and a berth in the ‘A’-side semi-finals on the line, the Muskies used a second-period goal by Greg Flewelling to boost them to a 3-2 win over the River East Kodiaks on Friday night.
Terry Kellar and Steven Sus had first-period power-play goals for the Muskies, who outshot the Kodiaks 40-21, with Green getting the win in goal.
Cory Ball and Derik Gessler replied for River East.
The semi-final Saturday against Carman saw the Cougars leap out to a 2-0 lead after the first period on markers by Scott Vanderveen and Johnathon Dueck.
But the Muskies tied it when Mitch Green and Steven Sus connected against Carman goalie Jayms Lyon in the second.
Aaron Lewadniuk scored 4:18 into the third against Green, who had replaced Gamsby at 13:46 of the first. But Kurtis Wepruk caused a Muskie roar when he tallied with just 18 seconds left in regulation time.
During the four-on-four overtime session, both teams had players go off for minor penalties 1:44 apart. Just as the Cougars’ Chad Taylor was leaving the box, Lewadniuk put the game away at 13:13 of the extra period with a quick shot after Carman won a draw in the Muskies’ zone.
Tyler Miller had a glorious chance to win it for the Muskies earlier in overtime but he shot just wide of an open net.
Niskala gave Fort High the early lead in the bronze-medal game against Oak Park on Sunday, but the Raiders evened the score with 1:56 left in the first period with a tally off the stick of Zacharias Gulyas.
Gulyas beat Green with just over eight minutes left in the second for a 2-1 Raiders lead, then teammate Justin MacDonald hit the twine on the power play just over three minutes later.
Brian White brought the Muskies to within one thanks to his marker with 4:42 left in regulation.
But despite Fort High’s potent attack and spotless goaltending by Cody Wood, who replaced Green to begin the third and stopped all 15 shots he faced, the Raiders were the better team on this day.
The game wasn’t the only loss for the Muskies, who went without Kellar for a good part of the game when he was taken down and crashed into the post during a breakaway.
Kellar was diagnosed with possible bruised ribs, but was feeling better by Monday and shouldn’t be out of the Muskie line-up for any length of time.