Muskie boys win pair

The Muskie boys’ hockey team didn’t let Dryden get in the way of their scoring spree, crushing the Eagles 8-2 in NorWOSSA action here Friday night.
Fort High (4-0) already is on a roll this season, winning every game by at least five goals, including their first of the campaign against Dryden (1-1).
“It’s still early in the season. We’ve got a lot of work to do,” said forward Joe Basaraba. “They’re gonna be a challenge in the next couple of months . . . they’ll be a team we gotta bring our game to, just like any other team.”
Assistant coach Ken Christiansen ws at the helm for the night with head coach Shane Bliss out of town. And while he was happy with the win, he had problems with the team’s execution.
“I thought we played very well from their blueline in. I thought we struggled from their blueline out,” Christiansen said. “We get our defensive play straightened out, we’ll be okay.”
Christansen credited the work of goalie David Moen, saying he played “very, very well” in the face of the team’s worst defensive night of the season.
Basaraba, a big contributor to the team’s offensive production Friday night with a pair of big goals and assists, said there were plenty of mistakes on the ice despite the score.
“Overall I thought we didn’t play too bad, but [for] a couple letdowns here and there,” he said. “Bad bounces, little letdowns, missed communications, stuff like that.
“Little things like that just come back to haunt us.”
While the game against Dryden didn’t give fans much to worry about, an exhibition match Saturday afternoon against a visiting team from Spring Lake Park, Mn. ended in a much closer 5-4 win.
Bliss, back behind the bench for that one, said the game could have been another blowout for the Muskies. “We had a 4-1 lead going into the third and pretty much squandered it,” he noted.
The Muskies next head to Minnesota this coming weekend for games in Red Lake Falls on Friday and then Hallock on Saturday.