Lucas Punkari
The perennial NorWOSSA boys’ hockey front-runners from Fort High began the 2011/12 campaign on the right foot.
Coming off an exhibition tournament triumph in Dryden at the end of October, the Muskies opened their regular-season schedule with a 4-3 victory over the host Eagles on Saturday.
“We came out a little bit flat at the start of the game, which I think might have been because we hadn’t played a game in nearly two weeks, and we also ran into a little bit of penalty trouble out there,” noted assistant coach Brad Gushulak.
“But as the game wore on, we were able to get a couple of power-play goals of our own.
“And our special teams were also playing really good, which helped us out, I think, in getting the win,” he added.
Jeff Davis, Tyler Mosbeck, Nick Jourdain, and Chris Bobczynski all scored for the Muskies, who are just getting their full roster together for the first time this season.
“We are just getting our guys back who were playing volleyball and football, and in fact we just had our first practice on Monday afternoon with everyone on the ice,” Gushulak said.
“Even with all of that, though, the guys have been doing really good, and in our practice on Monday the guys were really working together right away.”
Gushulak also feels the healthy mix of returning players and newcomers has helped the team out as the black-and-gold begin another quest to qualify for the all-Ontarios.
“Tyler Mosbeck has already been improving from where he was last year as he’s been scoring some big goals, and Nick Jourdain and Chris Bobczynski have both looked really good,” he remarked.
“All of our rookies have been playing key roles for us, as well, especially a guy like Cole Godbout, who has been great in helping out with our penalty kill.”
Following a NorWOSSA showdown last night against the host Kenora Broncos (the outcome wasn’t known as of press time), the Muskies next will be off to a tournament this weekend in Morden, Man., where they’ll be looking to defend the title they captured last season.
The Muskies then will hold their NorWOSSA home-opener next Tuesday (Nov. 22) against Kenora in a 7:15 p.m. clash at the Ice For Kids Arena.
“They [Kenora] edged us out the last time we played them, so we’ll see how things go this time around both there and here,” Gushulak noted, referring to the Broncos’ 2-1 triumph during the round-robin portion of the Dryden tournament.
“I think that we have a pretty decent team here this season, but we know that we are going to have to work hard to be successful as the league is always fairly close,” he stressed.
