Bad bounce has Muskies singing the Blues

Muskie head coach Glen Edwards had said before the OFSAA tournament that it didn’t matter how good you were if the bounces didn’t go your way.
And it was a bad bounce that jumped up and bit the Muskies in their 3-2 overtime loss to the Upper Canada Blues (Toronto) in the quarter-finals Friday night in Sudbury.
With Upper Canada applying pressure in the Muskie zone early in the extra frame, the puck took a Blues’ bounce and found Ross MacMillan standing all alone behind a pair of Muskie blueliners and in front of goalie Blake Carlson.
The lanky forward made a deke to his left, leaving Carlson sprawled on the ice, and promptly put the puck upstairs to send the Muskies–and their supportive crowd of about 100 fans–on their 14-hour trip home.
“It’s just the way it goes,” Edwards said after the game. “I think every loss at this level is really tough.”
The Muskies, who had visions of winning a medal at this year’s all-Ontarios, were still feeling the effects of the loss in the dressing room long after the game had ended.
“All the guys worked hard but we just came up short,” said veteran Tyler Coyle. “I’m proud of every one of them. We just have to keep our heads up.”
“I couldn’t believe it, it was just amazing . . . these are the best players I’ve ever played with,” noted defenceman Jon Rogoza.
The Muskies had to face fourth-ranked Upper Canada, who finished first in the Duncan pool with a 3-0-1 record, in the quarter-finals after finishing second in the McClelland pool with a 3-1 record.
Although the Muskies ended up tied with St. Pius (Ottawa) and Essex after round-robin play, the black-and-gold were awarded second place by virtue of their goals for and against ratio in games involving the other two teams.
A 5-3 loss to St. Pius and a 3-1 win over Essex left the Muskies with a zero differential. Essex earned top spot with a plus-4 differential (losing 3-1 to the Muskies but beating St. Pius 8-2) while St. Pius was eliminated with a minus-4 (a 5-3 win over Fort Frances but that 8-2 loss to Essex).
And a date with the always-powerful Blues probably was the Muskies’ last choice as to who they wanted to face in the first playoff round.
“We lost to St. Pius and that put us on the wrong side of the crossover,” said Edwards, adding he agreed with the tournament’s rules in breaking ties in pools.
While the Muskies would have liked to have changed the outcome of that final game, it was an exciting way to finish what was an outstanding season.
Trailing 2-0 heading into the third period, and Upper Canada clearly in control after Joel Morash’s tally with just 28 seconds left in the second, the black-and-gold staged a furious comeback to send the game to overtime.
Tom Rose finally solved Blues’ goalie Robbie MacNeil at 3:39 of the third when he converted a beautiful three-way passing play from Jeff Savage and Jesse Rodrigues.
Adam McTavish, assisted by Chris Kellar and Tyler Coyle, then tied the game exactly three minutes later on the power play.
“I’m really proud of the boys, they could have quit,” said Edwards. “They worked hard and they worked hard for their goals.
“It was desperation hockey [in the third period] but they were still using their heads,” he noted.
Upper Canada had silenced a pro-Muskie crowd 4:42 into the game when Ward Hails beat Muskie defenceman James Asplund to the outside and cut across the front of the net to snap a shot home for an early 1-0 lead.
Carlson appeared to have been caught up in interference caused by a flood of players in front of him and couldn’t get across to make the save.
Both teams had lots of quality chances in the first but Upper Canada appeared to take the game over in the second. Carlson was forced to make two huge saves five minutes into the second and then stopped Upper Canada’s Sean Cromarty, who was able to walk in all alone later in the period.
The Muskies were relatively quiet in the offensive end in the second period but did manage a glorious chance with about two minutes left when Rose just missed banging home a rebound.