Joey Payeur
With its gas tank on ‘E,’ the Muskie boys’ hockey team finally took an ‘L.’
Playing their fourth game in four nights, the Muskies coughed up a 3-0 lead before falling 4-3 to the visiting Dryden Eagles last night to come up one game short of an unblemished NorWOSSA regular-season record.
But the fact Fort High (14-1) couldn’t go undefeated wasn’t particularly vexing to head coach Jordan Sinclair.
“It’s not like we weren’t trying, but you could see by the mental errors we were making that we were tired,” he remarked.
“It’s unfortunate that we had the cancellations previously and needed the make-up dates,” Sinclair added, referring to the team’s hectic schedule this week.
“It’s very physically demanding and a good way to get injuries.
“I’m not at all worried about it,” he stressed.
“Some of our guys were getting beat tonight by guys they would never get beat by if they were fresh.”
Cam Gushulak opened the scoring 2:21 into the game before Cole Allan tallied twice just over three minutes apart later in the frame.
But the Eagles (10-4-0-1) started wearing down the Muskies in the second, with Jacob Lugli getting Dryden’s only even-strength goal of the night at 9:31 on a deflection in front that eluded goalie Matt Booth.
Lugli then made it a one-goal game on the power play at 18:22, swooping across the Muskie blueline and unloading a rocket that beat Booth high to the glove side.
“We could have scored three more goals in the second but we let them stay in the game,” said Sinclair, whose team couldn’t break through against Eagles’ goalie Jace Gamble after the first period.
Noah Brunton expertly finished off a 2-on-1 short-handed breakaway at 7:13 of the third to tie the game.
Shortly thereafter, Kaden Nelson was whistled for interference.
That proved costly as Keith Wrolstad notched another man-advantage marker for Dryden at 9:19 that stood up as the game-winner.
With the win, the Eagles clinched second place in NorWOSSA and home-ice advantage in their best-of-three semi-final series against the third-place St. Thomas Aquinas Saints of Kenora (9-5).
The Muskies, meanwhile, will open their semi-final series versus the fourth-place Sioux Lookout Warriors (7-6-1) next Friday (Feb. 24) at the Ice For Kids Arena, with a special start time of 5:15 p.m.
Fort High will be without leading scorer Chase McGuire for the opener.
McGuire was handed a two-game suspension earlier yesterday for getting a checking to the head major and game misconduct in Wednesday’s 14-0 win against the visiting Kenora Broncos.
He served the first game of that suspension last night against Dryden.
In related news, the Muskies will get a bonus “Border Battle” this Saturday at 7 p.m. against the International Falls Broncos at Bronco Arena.
Fort High swept the two previous games this season, but the Broncos had a team cancel out on them at the last minute and requested the Muskies as their opponent.
“They’re a really strong skating team and it’s always a great game,” noted Sinclair.
