Joey Payeur
The game was wallowing in a muddy pool of wailing whistles.
Leave it to the Muskie boys’ hockey team to power their way through the puck muck.
A six-goal third period turned a nail-biter into a rout as the black-and-gold completed a two-game sweep of the Sioux Lookout Warriors with a 9-3 victory Saturday afternoon at the ’52 Canadians Arena.
Coupled with a 9-1 dumping of the Warriors the night before at the Ice For Kids Arena, Fort High (3-0) grab sole possession of first place atop the NorWOSSA standings.
The second-place Kenora Broncos (2-0) do hold a game in hand.
“The penalties took any flow there was out of the game,” Muskie head coach Jamie Davis said about Saturday’s contest, which saw the two teams cited for a combined 22 infractions.
“It was penalty after penalty after penalty, and lots of things they called I didn’t think we’re necessary in both teams’ direction,” Davis added.
It actually was a short-handed goal that started the scoring for the Muskies, with Chase McGuire beating Kordell Favot at 14:50 of the first.
Cortez Favot tied it on a power-play at 16:14 before Matt Cheetham put Fort High back in front at 18:17.
Parker McRae again evened things up for the Warriors at 3:08 of the second with his own short-handed tally.
After Cheetham scored again, Cortez Favot forged the third tie of the game with his second of the day at 16:12.
But Sioux Lookout’s never-ending trek to the sin bin in the second period (nine penalties) carried over into the third—to their ultimate detriment.
Sam Tibbs connected on the power play at 4:51.
Then the floodgates burst open starting with Cheetham’s hat-trick goal at 13:16 in what was the first of five Fort High goals over the final 6:44.
Brent Jourdain scored back-to-back markers within 2:06 of each other, the second on a power play, while Jake Clendenning tallied on another man advantage at 17:37.
Byron Stewart capped the assault with his first goal as a Muskie with 11 seconds left.
Grade 10 rookie Matt Booth earned his second win in two days after he was assigned the starting goalie’s job for the weekend ahead of veteran Grade 12 netminder Dylan Ossachuk.
The Muskies used three power-play goals Friday night—and also threw in a penalty shot for good measure—to nab the victory.
Nick Hahkala and Sully Shortreed (man advantage) made it 2-0 in the first before McGuire made good on a penalty shot against Warriors’ starting goalie Magnus Ray at 12:25.
Power-play goals by Cam Gushulak and Graeme Kitt 51 seconds apart in the second made it 5-0, which ended Ray’s night.
Hahkala and Cooper Witherspoon welcomed Kordell Favot to the game with a goal each before the period was over to up the lead to 7-0.
It was hat-trick time for Hahkala at 1:15 of the third before Andy Brunton’s power-play goal at 5:16 spoiled Booth’s chance at a shutout in his NorWOSSA debut.
Shortreed netted his second of the game at 12:54 to close out the scoring.
“Our special teams weren’t bad but we’re not dialed in yet,” warned Davis, despite the seven goals in two games provided by the units.
“We’re still trying different guys in different positions,” he noted.
The Muskies hosted the St. Thomas Aquinas Saints (Kenora) last night, with the score unavailable as of press time.
Fort High then heads to Kenora next Tuesday (Dec. 1) to face the Broncos.
Their next home game is set for Thursday, Dec. 10 against those same Broncos at the ’52 Canadians Arena.
