Go Muskies!

Will the magic of 1989 be repeated?
That’s the big question on everyone’s mind this week as the all-Ontario boys’ hockey championship got underway here this morning.
After all, even though it’s been 17 years, no one among the 3,000 fans packed into the old Memorial Arena (now the ’52 Canadians Arena) on that fateful April Fool’s night will ever forget the bedlam that erupted when captain Billy Tucker’s blast from the point iced the gold medal for the host Muskies.
The memories of ’89 will be tough to live up to for the 2005/06 edition of the Fort Frances Muskies, ranked 12th among the 20 teams vying for OFSAA glory. In fact, with five players in Grade 10, more than a few weren’t even born yet when Fort High struck gold on home ice all those years ago.
But that doesn’t mean new memories can’t be made—and new stories that will be retold and relived 17 years from now.
The black-and-gold had a successful regular season, marred only by that disappointing loss to Kenora in the third-and-final game of the NorWOSSA championship. Still, the team is ranked 12th and, with several players back, there’s no reason why the Muskies can’t at least equal the performance of last year’s 17th-ranked squad at Windsor, which battled the top-seeded St. Mary Monarchs to a 1-1 tie in pool play before losing a heart-breaking 1-0 contest to defending champion St. Michael’s in the quarter-finals.
Given how quickly tickets were snapped up last month, the black-and gold certainly can count on terrific fan support to help carry them along. They got off to a fairly good start this morning by tying the fourth-ranked Birchmont Park Panthers 9-9, although they gave up two goals in the final 20 some seconds when a victory seemed in hand.
They continue action tomorrow at 10 a.m. in Emo against Uxbridge and then at 6 p.m. back here versus St. Matthew, before wrapping up pool play Friday at noon at the Ice for Kids Arena against Michael Power.
Having Shane Bliss behind the bench—a member of the gold-medal team here in 1989 as well as the one that captured Fort High’s first OFSAA gold medal in 1986—is a tremendous asset, too.
Time will tell if the Muskies can advance to the playoff round starting Friday evening. But regardless of how everything unfolds, local fans are sure to be treated to some great hockey over the coming days, which is really what it’s all about.