Joey Payeur
Just call her Lexi on fire.
Lexi Edwards put the International Falls Broncos girls’ hockey team on her back and carried them to victory—scoring all four goals in a 4-3 triumph over the Muskie girls hockey team in exhibition action here Monday night.
“No. 6 [Edwards] is a great player,” conceded Muskie head coach Scott Clendenning, whose team ended up splitting the annual “Border Battle” with the Broncos after winning 5-3 over there back on Dec. 2.
“It’s not like we were keying on her or anything but you’ve got to give her credit,” he noted.
“She won the game for them . . . they’re a well-coached team and I congratulate them.”
Already with a hat trick in her pocket, Edwards played heroine after the Muskies failed to clear the puck out of their zone late in the game with the score tied 3-3.
The shifty forward stole the puck at the blueline, then found herself up against Muskie forward Kaily Greengrass, who spontaneously was thrust into an unfamiliar defensive role with Edwards bearing down on her.
Edwards made a quick move to get around Greengrass, then rocketed a shot between the pads of Muskie goalie Kate Parsons for the game-winner with 2:26 left to bring the Broncos all the way back from a 3-1 second-period deficit.
“That puck should have been down the ice well before that,” said Clendenning, whose team now has lost two-straight games for the first time this season after dropping a 4-0 decision to the host Dryden Eagles in NorWOSSA play last Thursday.
“It’s a learning thing and we’ve got to learn how to win,” he remarked.
“Both [assistant coach] Todd Hamilton and myself had an old coach who taught us winning is an attitude,” Clendenning added.
“We’ve got nine games left in the [regular] season to find that attitude.”
Rookie forward Lauren Hamilton, who scored the second of three Muskie goals in the second period, said the squad has to find its rhythm for the full three periods.
“That happens a lot where we start slow, we peak in the second period, and then we fall apart in the third,” she admitted.
“We’ve yet to find out what’s causing that but when we do, it’ll sure make things better,” Hamilton pledged.
“We just weren’t moving our feet out there,” echoed veteran Muskie blueliner Alexis Perreault.
“I don’t think we’re playing at our highest level right now, but I believe we’ll get there in the next couple of games.”
Edwards netted the lone goal of the first period when she muscled a wraparound through a collection of bodies standing in the Muskie crease.
But after a sluggish start, Fort High came out smoking in the second—putting a trio of pucks past Broncos’ goalie Kalaya McConnell before the period was seven minutes old.
McConnell coughed up a huge rebound of Rachel Jean’s blast from the point, which Amy Penner gladly collected and knocked past McConnell to tie the score.
Hamilton gave the Muskies their first lead about two minutes later when she fired what she called a pass to linemate Emma Noga at the net, where the puck hit McConnell’s glove and bounced behind her.
Annalise Hayes then continued the momentum by taking a feed from Jean, charging down the right side, and then taking a shot that deflected past McConnell.
But with all the momentum on the Muskies’ side, including a power-play chance less than a minute later, Edwards stepped to the forefront for the visitors.
Nine seconds after Lexi Erickson had been sent off for roughing, the Broncos gained the Muskie zone, with Abby Auran getting off a shot that hit the post.
The puck sat on the goal line behind Parsons and Edwards got to it first—poking it into the yawning cage for a short-handed goal to cut the lead to 3-2.
Fort High then got caught napping to start the third when Edwards drilled the puck past Parsons just 12 seconds into the period to even things up.
Against Dryden (6-0) last week, the Muskies (4-2) played a terrific first period but had to settle for coming out of the stanza scoreless.
That cost them in the second as Liv Carter and Elizabeth Carter both beat Parsons.
Rachel Getson scored early in the third, then adding a second tally with 52 seconds to play to ice the victory.
Jacquie Grandmont earned the shutout in goal.
The Eagles stopped Fort High’s 21-game NorWOSSA unbeaten streak last month and now have taken both regular-season match-ups this season, although the Muskies did beat Dryden 1-0 in the K-Town Christmas Classic final in Kenora last month.
“We have to play every shift with passion and energy,” Clendenning stressed.
“We’ve got to be ready to play every night.”
The Muskies are in the midst of a stretch of four games in six days, with their next test coming tonight in Kenora in a NorWOSSA duel with the St. Thomas Aquinas Saints.
Then they’ll host the Kenora Broncos tomorrow at 7:15 p.m. at the ’52 Canadians Arena.
On Saturday, Fort High will welcome the Silver Bay Mariners (Mn.) to town for a pair of games at the Couchiching Arena.
The Fort U14 team, coached by Ron MacKinnon, will face off against the junior varsity Mariners at 12:30 p.m.
The Muskies and the senior varsity Mariners then will take to the ice at 3 p.m.
