Muskie boys aim to learn from losses

As a rule, coaches don’t like to lose.
Ask any coach in any competitive sport why they devote countless hours towards strategizing and teaching the finer points of the game and they’ll most likely say it’s because they like to win.
However, if they absolutely must lose, some of the sting can be alleviated if the team learns for the defeat and gets stronger.
Case in point the Muskie boys’ hockey team, which lost two of its three games at the Marshall Hilltoppers’ annual tournament last week in Duluth.
While the results were less than ideal, head coach Shane Bliss is confident his team is better for the experience.
“This is the type of competition that we need to play against if we’re going to get any better,” he remarked. “I think that the boys definitely did learn something.”
Bliss was particularly impressed with the black-and-gold’s puck movement—especially during their final game—and their return to the basic tenets of play that make any team successful.
“We had guys who were hungry and going to the net hard and just making simple plays,” he said. “We didn’t play bad hockey, we just made a few mistakes that resulted in goals.
“We were playing against good enough hockey teams that they were able to capitalize on the mistakes,” Bliss added.
“You can’t afford to make four or five mistakes in one game because they’ll make you pay on three or four of them,” he stressed. “That’s kind of what we found out.”
The Muskies will have a chance to apply the lessons they’ve learned beginning today (Jan. 3) when they compete at the Winnipeg High School Hockey League’s Tournament of Champions there.
Fort High had opened the Hilltoppers’ tournament last Tuesday (Boxing Day) with a narrow 3-2 loss to the Hudson Raiders (Wisconsin).
Zach McCool and Joe Basaraba tallied for the black-and-gold while David Moen was saddled with the loss between the pipes.
The Muskies then dropped another close game—this time by a score of 4-3—to Providence Academy in their second outing last Wednesday.
Kyle Turgeon, Cody McCool, and Zach McCool scored for the Muskies in that one, with Richard Wieringa taking the loss in goal.
However, Fort High was able to salvage a win in their final game on Thursday morning as they trounced the Jeffers Jets (Michigan) 9-1 to capture seventh place overall in the eight-team tourney.
Taylor Jorgenson led the way against the Jets with a pair of goals while Dustin Brown, Turgeon, Matt Hebert, Ryan Witherspoon, George Halverson, Blake Wepruk, and Matt McLellan all added singles.
Moen was back in goal and earned the win.