Joey Payeur
It was win or tie—or go home.
That was the scenario facing the Muskie girls’ hockey team heading into their final game of Pool ‘B’ play earlier today in Sudbury.
The black-and-gold needed at least a draw against the Ecole secondaire catholique Theriault Flammes (Timmins) to advance to the quarter-finals of their first-ever appearance at the OFSAA ‘AA’ championship.
The Muskies were in second place in Pool ‘B’ with a 1-1 record following opening day action yesterday while the Flammes were tied with Ecole secondaire catholique Embrun Cyclones (Embrun) for third at 0-1-1.
St. Michael Catholic Secondary School Warriors led the pool with a 2-0 mark, and already had clinched a berth in tonight’s quarter-finals.
The eighth-seeded Muskies recorded the first OFSAA victory in program history with a 1-0 shutout of the ninth-ranked Cyclones (Embrun) yesterday morning.
Shelby Tymkin executed a perfect deflection of Katie Sinclair’s shot midway through the first period, which stood up as the game-winning goal.
Calie Clendenning stopped all 15 shots she faced to earn the shutout.
Shawlee Gaudreault, meanwhile, was valiant in defeat for the Cyclones with 37 saves.
“It was a great win by the girls,” lauded Muskie head coach Scott Clendenning.
“As the game went on, the girls got stronger,” he noted.
“It was a great way to start the tourney.”
Fort High couldn’t keep the momentum going, though—falling 4-2 to third-seeded St. Michael yesterday afternoon.
“Overall it was a good game,” said Clendenning.
“In the second period, we took our foot off the gas but we had some great pressure in the third,” he remarked.
“We had some quality chances to tie it up.”
The Muskies fell behind early in the first on a Warriors’ power-play goal with Amber Jourdain in the penalty box.
Tymkin tied it later in the frame with a short-handed breakaway goal.
Sinclair then re-created the classic scene from “The Mighty Ducks” with a flutter puck that found its way into the back of the net before intermission for a 2-1 Muskie lead.
Kate Parsons came up with a big-time stop just before the end of the period, and had to be strong again early in the second when penalty trouble plagued Fort High.
Having taken three minors in the first, the Muskies repeated that dubious achievement in the first few minutes of the second.
Kaily Greengrass (hooking), Shilo Beck (slashing), and Claire Sandelovich (tripping) all were whistled—much to the chagrin of their coach.
“I can’t stand refs who wreck a good hockey game,” Clendenning lamented.
Despite facing back-to-back 5-on-3 short-handed situations, the Muskies dug in their skates and weathered the storm still in front.
The effort expended to do so, however, may have come back to hurt them later in the period as St. Michael scored twice in just over two minutes to forge ahead 3-2.
Parsons tried desperately to keep her team within striking distance with a series of tough saves early in the third.
But after a Muskie offensive flurry was turned away by the Warriors, St. Michael notched an insurance goal with two minutes to go.
Parsons was pulled for an extra attacker in the final 1:30 but Fort High came up empty.
The quarter-finals get underway tonight at 5:30 p.m. (CDT).
