Staff
Coming off a pre-season which included a silver medal at their home tournament and a consolation championship in Winnipeg, the Muskie girls’ hockey team were licking their chops at the prospect of a high-octane start to the NorWOSSA regular season.
Instead, their engine failed to click on all cylinders, leading to more sputtering than smooth sailing.
The Muskies (0-2) discovered there will be no easy nights for them in NorWOSSA this season as they fell 6-3 to the host Kenora Broncos on Friday night and then by that same score in their home-opener Saturday night versus the Dryden Eagles.
“We’re in there with these teams,” said Muskie coach Mel Langtry. “We’re a step or two behind right now, though.”
After Kenora took a 2-0 lead on Friday, Danielle Jean struck for the Muskies late in the first period to slice the lead in half.
Jillian Langtry, who led the black-and-gold with three points, fed the puck into the corner to Shae-Lynn Smith, who zipped a cross-crease pass to Jean at the side of the Broncos’ net.
Jean slipped it past the Kenora goalie to give the Muskies some momentum entering the second.
But Kenora regained its two-goal lead in the opening minutes of the middle stanza before Smith found Langtry in front of the net, where she put a backhander home at the eight-minute mark to make it 3-2 for the hosts.
The Broncos responded with another tally 1:10 later, but Langtry kept Fort High close with an unassisted short-handed marker with 15 ticks on the clock to again make it a one-goal game.
Kenora refused to disappoint their home fans, however, scoring eight minutes into the third and then adding an insurance marker with four minutes to go.
The Muskies outshot Kenora 43-30 in the game, with Melissa Payne making 24 saves for the black-and-gold.
Stephanie Ferguson had 40 stops to earn the win for Kenora, which went 0-for-6 on the power play while the Muskies were 0-for-8.
“I thought we had a pretty good first [period],” said Coach Langtry. “But we let it slip a bit in the second, even though we played a pretty good third.
“We didn’t play as good on defence as we should,” he added.
Then on Saturday night, Fort High faced the defending NorWOSSA champion Dryden Eagles on “Cam Smith Night.”
Before the game, the Muskies honoured Smith, a longtime fan who died Aug. 27 at age 63, by unveiling a display case which contained his “No. 1 Fan” Muskies’ jacket.
Perhaps fuelled by the adrenalin of the pre-game ceremonies, the black-and-gold came out on fire.
Anikka McTavish fired a howitzer from the point at the three-minute mark before Ericka Tymkin whipped a backhander from the left face-off circle at 7:06 to propel the home side to a quick two-goal lead.
But Dryden regrouped to score with 1:20 left in the period, then ran wild in what was a sloppy middle frame for the Muskies.
“We had quite a few defensive turnovers,” said Coach Langtry.
“Our players would just turn and throw the puck away, and not take the extra second or two to make a more heads-up play,” he noted.
The Eagles tied it two minutes into the second, moved ahead three minutes later, and then made it 4-2 with a minute left before intermission.
Taylor Dixon gave the Muskies new life at 2:44 of the third on a pretty three-way passing play. Alyssa Penner and Jessie Baker teamed up to set up Dixon, who lifted the puck over the sprawled Dryden goalie.
But penalty problems, and a missed penalty shot, spelled doom for Fort High as the period wore on.
Dryden scored its first of two power-play goals on the night in five chances with 12 minutes to go during a scramble in front of goalie Dana Cridland to make it 5-3.
Two minutes later, an Eagles’ defender was whistled for covering the puck in the crease, awarding the Muskies an automatic penalty shot.
Jillian Langtry did the honours and pulled an excellent deke move, but lost control of the puck and didn’t get off a clean shot.
Dryden breathed a sigh of relief and delivered a knock-out punch one minute later during another man-advantage opportunity to round out the scoring.
The Eagles outshot the Muskies 46-31, with Cridland making 25 saves in the loss.
“In the third, they really took it to us,” said Coach Langtry.
“I don’t know it if it was because we played two games in two nights, and had to travel in between, but we just didn’t have any jump late in the game.”
Langtry still is evaluating who his “go-to” person in net will be this season after Payne and Cridland both were burned for six goals each.
“I’m waiting for someone to step up and take the No. 1 job,” he said. “I don’t have any plan to platoon them all season.”
The Muskies hosted the St. Thomas Aquinas Saints of Kenora, a new addition to the NorWOSSA circuit this season, at the ’52 Canadians Arena last night (the score was unavailable by press time).
Fort High then will travel to Altona, Man. for a tournament this weekend.
They will open play Friday against the Pembina Valley Tigers at 1 p.m. and the Morden Thunder at 7 p.m., then complete the preliminary round against the Mennonite Collegiate Institute Blues from Gretna on Saturday at 10 a.m.
The finals will be played later Saturday.
