Mitch Calvert
It’s a game of inches—and unfortunately the Muskie girls’ hockey team ended up on the wrong end of a seesaw battle here last night in the third-and-deciding game of their NorWOSSA semi-final showdown with the Kenora Broncos.
Broncos’ goalie Stephanie Ferguson all but shut the door in the third period, helping the Broncos escape with a 4-3 victory and a berth in the best-of-three NorWOSSA final against the first-place Dryden Eagles.
The Muskies threw everything on Ferguson in the third but she was more than up to the task—holding up to the steady flow of scoring chances all period long.
Fort High got behind the eight ball early, trailing 2-0 at the midway point of the game, but the black-and-gold suddenly came alive thanks to Jillian Langtry, who got things going with a highlight-reel goal.
She then assisted on Carlee Bosma’s tally directly off the ensuing face-off just 14 seconds later to tie the game with 5:22 left in the second.
Rylee Meisner put the Broncos back in front before the end of the second, then Kelsey Craven gave the visitors a two-goal cushion again a little less than eight minutes into the third.
But the Muskies refused to roll over and die—hoping to rekindle the magic that saw them overcome a two-goal deficit to win the series-opener here Friday night.
This time, however, Ferguson refused to break, only allowing one Muskie shot from Jessie Baker to slip by her on a rebound during a 30-second barrage of shots just past the midway point of the third.
Fort High kept the pressure on full blast for the final nine minutes of play, but simply couldn’t solve Ferguson again.
In other late-breaking news, the Fort Frances Jr. Sabres dumped the Sioux Lookout Flyers, their potential first-round playoff opponent, by a 6-0 score at the Ice for Kids Arena last night.
The third-place Sabres are now four points up on fourth-place Schreiber in the SIJHL’s lone playoff position race heading into a crucial two-game showdown with the Diesels here Thursday and Friday night (March 5-6) that will wrap up the regular season for Fort Frances.
The Diesels still have one more game to play, which goes Saturday versus the Dryden Ice Dogs.
Please see Page C1 for more coverage of the Muskie girls and Sabres.
