Joey Payeur
All the gaudy numbers for the Muskie girls’ hockey team fade away come the NorWOSSA playoffs.
No. 1 in the regular season, a 15-1 record, and a league-leading 108 goals in 16 games–all impressive. And yet, now all as useful as a vegan food critic at a steakhouse.
The main number left behind is “four”–as in four wins away from a fourth-straight league title.
Staying with the theme, first up is the fourth-place Sioux Lookout Warriors in Game 1 of the best-of-three NorWOSSA semi-final series tomorrow (Feb. 23) at 7:15 p.m. at the Ice For Kids Arena.
Game 2 goes Sunday in Sioux Lookout, with Game 3 (if necessary) back here next Tuesday at 7:15 p.m.
“I think we can still go harder,” said rookie blueliner Emily Kaun after the Muskies warmed up for the Warriors with an 8-0 bombing of the Kenora Broncos here last Wednesday night.
“We’re doing good now but we have to put the hammer down, win the playoffs, and go to OFSAA,” she stressed.
“Our skating ability and passing is a lot better than Sioux Lookout,” Kaun added.
“That’s where I think we really have the advantage.”
Muskie head coach Todd Hamilton will be doing his best to make sure his players don’t take the Warriors lightly–despite winning all four regular-season meetings by a combined margin of 30-5.
“When I spoke to you in October and November, I said Sioux Lookout was going to push the rest of the teams in the league,” he recalled.
“They have done just that. They don’t stop skating and they’re a tough group,” Hamilton warned.
“We have to be ready to play our best hockey to beat them.”
Veteran forward Jenna Clendenning said playing as a group, rather than as individuals, is vital to not only stopping the Warriors but continuing on to another league crown.
“We all work as a team and there’s definitely positivity,” she noted. “I think we stay up more as a team than last year.
“We may have a couple of negative moments, but then we back it up with being positive again.”
Last Wednesday, the Muskies fired a jaw-dropping 107 shots to just eight for winless Kenora (0-16), who got an incredible effort from goalie Sage Skead as she was credited with 99 saves.
“In the last game of the regular season, you want your team to bring the effort and we certainly got it tonight [Wednesday],” lauded Hamilton, who was without top scorer Annalise (CC) Hayes (shoulder) and linemate Lauren Hamilton (upper body), along with blueliner Sara Jackson (upper body), with all expected back for Game 1 tomorrow night against Sioux Lookout.
“We picked it up when our girls realized they needed to.”
“I think we did well tonight walking out of the corner with the puck and not just playing it all down low,” noted Clendenning.
“We were cycling it more in their end.”
“I like how we kept possession of the puck a lot, and kept them in their end and kept the play going,” echoed Kaun.
The Muskies’ win-loss record belies the fact the team has had its issues with a young defence corps featuring three rookies out of six, along with a forward group that at times has looked to Hayes to be the saviour a little too often.
“You need three lines and six defencemen going. You need that balance,” Hamilton stressed.
