Mitch Calvert
The Muskie girls’ hockey team certainly made a lasting first impression.
Just five practices into their season, the squad went a perfect 5-0 in their home tourney over the weekend, including a sound 3-0 win over the Dryden Eagles in the finale on Sunday.
Jessie Baker snapped a scoreless tie midway through the second period when she forced a turnover along the boards in Dryden’s zone and fired a hard snap shot high over Breanna Brown’s blocker.
Lauren Krukoski and Kailey Curtis netted insurance markers while newcomer Katrina Smith earned the shutout in goal.
“It was a pretty good weekend,” Muskie coach Chris Hill said. “The good thing about the tournament is everyone gets a chance to try a couple different line combinations and see them against some competitive teams.”
The Muskies had opened action Friday afternoon with a 6-1 win over the St. Thomas Aquinas Saints (Kenora).
The black-and-gold jumped out to a 2-0 lead after one period but then got into penalty trouble in the second, leading to a Saints’ power-play goal to cut the deficit in half.
But the hosts regrouped, adding a goal in the second before netting three more in the third to salt the game away.
Fort High faced a bigger test Friday night against Portage Collegiate Institute, pulling out a 4-1 win backstopped by another strong performance by Smith, then finished off round-robin play with consecutive shutouts over Red Lake (7-0) and Pembina (6-0) on Saturday.
“Between the two goalies, Sara Trendiak, who’s a returning goalie, and with Katrina, we have a very solid one-two punch there,” Hill lauded.
“We do have little things to work on, like our positioning, defensive coverage, power play, and penalty kill, stuff we haven’t really had to work on in just five practices, but that will come,” he added.
Perhaps the biggest question mark coming into this season was how the revamped Muskie defence would play, with three rookies expected to play big minutes alongside the three returning players.
Veterans Kimmy LaFleur, Erika Anderson, and Haven Labbe subsequently were paired with rookies Melanie Scott, Courtney Easton, and Sam Bell during the weekend tournament.
“We paired a veteran with a rookie and they all did OK,” Hill noted. “Everyone was a little nervous off the start, but everyone started to work together with one another as the tournament went on.”
The black-and-gold certainly showed no shortage of offence over the weekend—scoring 26 goals in five games.
“That’s the thing I think I’m the most excited about,” Hill said of the forward lines. “We have three pretty solid lines that at any time can put the puck in the net.
“I mean, we may need to finish our chances a little bit more, but not too bad for this early in the year,” he enthused.
The Muskies will see a good amount of practice time this week and next before they head off to a tournament in Winnipeg beginning Nov. 7.
“It’s nice to start off the season on the right foot and we were able to see areas we want to improve on,” Hill said. “Hopefully, we can get some good practices in before we head off to Winnipeg, but it’s good to get the kids some games.
“You can only do so much in practice, and this [tournament] works well because they actually get to see the situations they’ll face in a game.”
The NorWOSSA season will begin the week following the Winnipeg tournament.
