As the Muskies prepare for their first appearance at the all-Ontarios in three years, going in as the 10th-ranked team, discipline and defence most definitely will be the keys to their success in Dryden.
There’s no question the black-and-gold can score goals. More of a question mark of late has been their ability to keep the puck out of their own net.
The Muskies only allowed a paltry 39 goals in 16 regular-season games–by far the best in NorWOSSA–but they’ve struggled at times in the playoffs.
Particularly alarming has been the trend of jumping out to a comfortable lead early only to watch it slip away down the stretch.
It happened in a 6-5 win in game two of the semi-finals against Red Lake and then again here a week ago Tuesday in an 8-6 victory over the Dryden Eagles to clinch the NorWOSSA crown.
Ken Christiansen, a veteran defensive coach with the Muskies, said part of the problem has been injuries–and the fact they will be down to just five defenceman thanks to the season-ending collarbone injury to Gary Curtis.
“My opinion, I feel we would be more comfortable with six defencemen, but we don’t have six,” he said. “And it’s going to be very hard on them playing all of those games by going with five but hopefully they can do it.”
Christiansen stressed the defence can play very well at times only to have a slip in their play for a short stretch, giving opponents a chance to get back into hockey games.
“We’ve struggled a bit in our own zone,” he admitted. “The only time I think when we played a consistent game was the 7-1 win over Dryden.
“We’re going to have to cut down on our goals against,” he warned.
Captain Chuck Arpin has filled in nicely dropping back to the point in the latter part of the season, where he’s been paired up with Jon Lloyd. The other pairing consists of Jon Rogoza and a rotation of the twin towers in Steve Baker and James Asplund.
“I think we’ll do all right. Compared to other teams we’ve had, we stack up very good,” offered Muskie head coach Glen Edwards. “We’re solid in goal, offensively we have three good lines, and the defence is starting to come along back there.
“But the key will be how well defensively we play in our own zone,” he stressed.
The Muskies also have the option of moving back Chris Kellar, who switched to forward with Arpin. He has played very well at both ends of the ice this season–and gives the black-and-gold a very nice option of moving him around in case they run into more injuries or penalty trouble.
The Muskies ran into penalty trouble in the third period of the third game of the NorWOSSA final here against Dryden, allowing the Eagles to score on two of three power-play chances.
Christiansen agreed they’ll have to stay out of the penalty box if they hope to be successful at the all-Ontarios.
“Our league has always been very competitive with the eastern teams and what we’ve found out is that over the years, discipline wins a lot of hockey games,” he noted.
“We can’t take foolish penalties.”
“We try to play disciplined and it usually affects you when you play the Catholic schools, who are very tough in discipline compared to some of the city schools,” added Edwards.
“Those are the schools that you usually take advantage of,” he said.
Meanwhile, one of the areas the team has been working on is puck movement among their defencemen, who, in turn, hit the centre at full flight in the middle of the ice.
That “centre-ice breakout,” combined with their speed at centre, may be the Muskies’ strength.
“We move the puck from defence to defence very well . . . we are trying to fine-tune our game, spring our guys in the middle, and move very quickly from defence to offence,” said Edwards.
If the Muskies move the puck up ice a step quicker than most teams are used to, that transition from defence to offence may be their biggest weapon at the all-Ontarios next week.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
