Joey Payeur
With four games in its first seven days of the NorWOSSA regular season, the Muskie girls’ hockey team wasn’t going to have to wait long to see how it stacked up against its counterparts.
It’s fair to say early indications of the defending OFSAA silver-medalists and two-time defending NorWOSSA champs look promising.
The Muskies steamrolled to four-straight victories to open the campaign—completing the opening week with back-to-back 13-0 shellackings of the Sioux Lookout Warriors on Sunday at the Emo-La Vallee Arena and again Monday at the Ice For Kids Arena here.
It’s not the offensive outburst that has Muskie head coach Todd Hamilton smiling, although he’ll gladly take the 46-4 combined margin of victory so far in NorWOSSA play.
From his perspective, it’s the streak of 187:21 without surrendering a goal heading into last night’s game against the host Kenora Broncos that had him in high spirits.
“The girls are taking responsibility in their own end,” lauded Hamilton.
“While these games seem more offensive-minded, that defence is something we practise every day,” he noted.
Grade 11 rookie blueliner Abby Plourde said much of the onus for keeping things clean in the Muskies’ own end falls to them once they come up with the puck.
“Coach lets us know it’s important to get the puck forward effectively,” she said.
“If we don’t make the good first pass, we’re not going to be starting any plays.”
One of the forwards accepting those passes Monday afternoon was out of her normal position—but not out of her element.
Regular starting goalie Sydney Beck donned a No. 15 jersey (with no name on the back) and took a turn up front in Hamilton’s ongoing mission to acclimate all of his players not only with different playing partners but different positions.
“You don’t do fire drills in the middle of a fire,” he reasoned.
“We want Sydney to play out in case we need her there later on.
“She did pretty good and even got a shot on goal,” he added.
Beck, who used to play forward in her minor hockey days in Emo alongside current Muskie teammate Avery Cates, relished her turn to get out from between the pipes.
“The coaches came to me beforehand and said they wanted me to try it, and it was really fun,” enthused Beck, who grinned when asked to rate her lone scoring chance.
“It wasn’t close,” she laughed.
Cates was one of five Muskies to score two goals against the Warriors here Monday.
“We wanted to start strong today,” noted Cates, whose two first-period tallies helped the Muskies jump out to a 6-0 lead after the first period.
“[Hamilton] is always saying the defence is like the quarterback because we have to set up plays—that’s our job,” she added.
“On both goals, I just swooped up to the net and got an assist both times from ‘CC’ [Annalise Hayes],” Cates noted.
“The Warriors are a team that gives us a little more room in the slot.”
Rylee Redford, Taylor Croswell, Jenna Clendenning, and Hanna LeDrew also netted two goals each Monday.
Hayes, Moriah Carradice, and Janelle Kaemingh added singles.
Harleigh Brow-Rose wasn’t tested much, but took care of what she needed to in earning her second shutout in two appearances since joining the Muskies’ roster last week.
In Sunday’s runaway victory, Hayes, Rachel Jean, and Redford all notched hat tricks.
Emma Noga struck for two goals while Kelsey Langtry and Taylor Croswell had singles.
Beck earned up the shutout.
“We had a lot of good passing and we were able to work on plays from practice,” Langtry said of the two-game series with the Warriors.
“We’re really on the puck well with our forechecking, which we work on a lot.”
The Muskies kicked off the regular season in thrilling fashion last Tuesday night with a 5-4 comeback win over the Dryden Eagles at the ’52 Canadians Arena here.
Trailing 4-3 with under two minutes to go and on the power play, Hayes rushed up ice and made a great inside move to get in alone on Eagles’ goalie Jacquie Grandmont.
She then labelled a wrist shot to the stick side for the equalizer.
With Dryden reeling, the Muskies delivered the knockout punch just 33 seconds later.
After Jean pinched in to keep the puck in the Eagles’ zone, she fed a cross-ice pass to Hayes in the left circle, whose off-speed shot left Grandmont grasping at air for the game-winner.
“They’re fast and they’re a really tough team to play against,” Hayes said about the Eagles.
“But before the game, I was really believing we were going to win.”
The Muskies then bombed the host Kenora Broncos 15-0 on Thursday night.
Jean had a hat trick in that one while Croswell and Kaemingh scored two apiece.
Langtry and Carradice netted their first regular-season goals as Muskies while singles also went to Hayes, Clendenning, Lauren Hamilton, Cates, Siobhan Mackintosh, and Redford.
Following last night’s game against the Broncos, the Muskies head to Thunder Bay this weekend for what should be three formidable tests.
On Friday, they’ll take on the Confederation College Thunderhawks, with last year’s Muskie captain Amy Penner and fellow Muskie alumnus Kaily Greengrass on their roster.
The Muskies then will face the Thunder Bay Midget ‘AA’ Queens on Saturday before wrapping up with a Sunday showdown against the Thunder Bay Fury Midget ‘B’ squad.
Plourde is anxious to see what the Muskies are made of when the heat gets turned up.
“It’s going to be exciting to be in these harder games to see what we can do against stronger teams,” she remarked.
The Muskies’ next home action is a two-game series against the St. Thomas Aquinas Saints (Kenora) on Dec. 16-17.
