Muskie girls miss medal

The Muskie girls’ hockey team beat Dryden when it counted last week, but then came up short at the Eagles’ exhibition tournament over the weekend, settling for fifth place.
The black-and-gold had bombed the host Eagles 8-1 in NorWOSSA action last Thursday, then stayed in town for a six-team tournament, winning a pair of exhibition shutouts that sandwiched a 5-2 loss to Dryden.
“It was not bad . . . there was no lack of effort,” Muskie head coach Lynn Kellar said. “Offensively, the kids are starting to move the puck a bit better.”
Dryden’s tournament proved a bit of an anti-climactic finish to a week which was underlined by an emphatic, and important, league win against the Eagles—a team that has blown out the Muskies often in recent history.
“I really liked beating Dryden because we’ve been losing to them since I started [on] the team,” laughed Muskie forward Taylor Meyers.
Meyers and Lauren Krukoski each had a pair of goals in the victory, with Lauren Pierce, Kailey Curtis, Lindsey Roehrig, and Nina Bird adding singles.
The win lifted the Muskies’ early-season NorWOSSA record to 3-1. It was their second of the year over Dryden, but a far more convincing victory than the 3-2 shootout win here back on Nov. 13.
Then in tournament action, the Muskies blanked the Kenora Broncos 1-0 on Friday afternoon before immediately facing a determined Eagles’ squad.
While the draw definitely was against the Muskies (and a real factor for a team carrying a limited roster for the weekend), the team didn’t want to shift any of the blame for the 5-2 loss on the schedule.
Kellar said the Eagles capitalized on some penalties in the third period that led to power-play goals, which gave new life to Dryden.
“Once they got a couple of goals, I think our kids kind of let up a little bit,” he admitted.
The team only had four defencemen on the bench and had played just the night before, but Meyers said their level of play was the only real factor.
“Yeah, it kind of sucked, but I don’t want to blame the fact that we were tired,” she said. “We still played well.”
The girls ended the tournament with a 5-0 win over the Red Lake Rams on Saturday afternoon.
The Muskie girls next face the Lake of the Woods Bears (Baudette) in exhibition play in Emo tomorrow night (Dec. 6), then will resume their league schedule Dec. 11 when they host the Kenora Broncos.