Joey Payeur
Jamie Davis couldn’t bear to look.
He let the sound of his bench tell him the outcome.
The head coach of the Muskie boys’ hockey team was surrounded by yells of victory when Jonah Johnson stopped Cam Wiens in the third round of the shootout to ice a 3-2 win over the Northlands Parkway Collegiate Night Hawks (Winkler, Man.) in the final of the Dryden Eagles’ annual home tournament Saturday.
“I didn’t even see the save—I wasn’t watching,” chuckled Davis, who claimed the first tournament title of his tenure behind the Muskies’ bench after being hired this fall to replace Shawn Jourdain.
“It feels good but I’m more excited for the guys,” he added.
“They worked hard and it was nice to see them come out on top.”
After both teams had their first two marksmen stymied in the shootout, Cole Tymkin capped off a terrific week by scoring the decisive goal in the third round.
“Cole made a nice little forehand-backhand move that had the goalie down and he put it up over him,” Davis said about his lone Grade 9 players on the squad, who had a natural hat trick in a win over the Kenora Broncos in the Muskies’ NorWOSSA home-opener last Tuesday.
David Pryde put the Muskies up 1-0 just over a minute into the first period of the final before the Night Hawks tied it at 14:30 of the second on a goal by Jared Unrau.
Unrau struck again at 11:50 of the third—only to have Fort High tie the game on Nolan Vold’s marker at 16:57.
The Muskies began their 4-0 run at the tournament with a 6-0 whitewash of the Sioux Lookout Warriors on Friday, followed later that day with a 12-1 romp over the Morris (Man.) Mavericks.
Fort High then grabbed its berth in the final in thrilling fashion—rallying from a 4-1 deficit to nip the St. Thomas Aquinas Saints (Kenora) 5-4 on Saturday, with Tyler VanUden scoring his second of the game at 14:54 of the third for the game-winner.
Muskie goalie Derek Kaemingh, in his first game of the season after recovering from an appendectomy, played both games Friday while Johnson handled the goaltending duties in Saturday’s contests.
The black-and-gold were without forward Malcolm King, who still is listed as day-to-day with a lower-body injury.
The Muskies return to the ice this Wednesday in Kenora to face St. Thomas Aquinas in their third game of the NorWOSSA campaign.
Fort High doesn’t play at home again until Dec. 9, when the Red Lake Rams visit the Ice For Kids Arena.
