Gordon Anderson
The Muskie boys’ hockey team took a 1,200-km bus trip for their opening game at the 2011 OFSAA ‘AAA/AAAA’ showdown in Toronto but something was lost on the trip.
A poorly-played first period by the black-and-gold was all the seventh-ranked Our Lady of Mount Carmel Crusaders needed in a 7-4 victory this morning in the opening game of Pool ‘A’ action at the MasterCard Centre.
Fort High, ranked 13th in the 20-team field, looked sluggish and slow, and turned the puck over way too many times in the opening 15 minutes.
When it was all over, the Crusaders had a 3-1 lead and cruised from there.
“I think they outworked us,” said Muskie defenceman Chris Cousineau.
“They had more fire than us and outnumbered us in the corners all the time,” he noted.
Ryan Smith opened the scoring just two minutes in for the Crusaders before James DeHass doubled the lead some six minutes later.
Colton Spicer responded with a power-play goal with 4:36 left in the opening period on a wrist shot from the left circle.
But Michael Mercer’s goal at 11:58 gave Mount Carmel a 3-1 lead after one.
The second period was much more positive for the Muskies as both teams scored twice.
“We started getting into our comfort zone in the second period and then we started to move the puck around much better,” Cousineau remarked.
Kevin Marsh gave the Crusaders a 4-1 lead just 31 seconds in before Nick Jourdain responded 7:56 later to cut the lead in half.
Mount Carmel surged ahead 5-2 when Shawn Bellchambers scored, but Chris Bobczynski rounded out the scoring in the middle frame less than a minute later.
Muskie goalie Devin Stromness struggled a bit through two periods. He left a few rebounds out but, in his defence, he didn’t get a lot of help in front of him.
Still, head coach Shawn Jourdain thought Stromness could have been better.
“He’s had better days,” Jourdain replied tersely when asked about Stromness’ effort.
Patrick Wiejak and Smith scored for the Crusaders in the third while Spicer tallied shorthanded for Fort High to complete the scoring.
The Muskies went 1-for-5 on the power play while Mount Carmel was 0-for-2.
The black-and-gold will be on the ice for a pair of games tomorrow, facing the 12th-ranked St. Thomas of Villanova Wildcats (Lasalle) at 7 a.m. before clashing with the top-ranked St. Mary’s Monarchs (Pickering) at 1 p.m. (both times are CDT).
The Muskies will wrap up pool play Thursday at 8 a.m. (CDT) versus 20th-ranked Holy Cross.
The top four teams from each pool advance to the quarter-finals.
