Joey Payeur
Chase McGuire drove the road to redemption like there wasn’t a cop with a radar gun for another 500 miles.
McGuire riddled the Dryden Eagles for four goals to lead the Muskie boys’ hockey team to a 5-2 victory there Tuesday night to give Fort High a perfect regular-season record of 15-0.
Sully Shortreed had the other Muskie goal while Matt Booth earned the win in goal.
Dryden’s goal scorers were unavailable at press time.
“I don’t think we played too bad,” said Muskie head coach Jamie Davis.
“But it was one of those games where the score could have been higher for us, but it wasn’t,” he noted.
“Dryden played well and penalties cost us.”
McGuire, along with goalie Dylan Ossachuk, missed the team bus and subsequently were benched for the Muskies’ 5-3 win over the host Sioux Lookout Warriors last Friday.
Five others also didn’t see the ice due to being late for the trip.
“We got told before that game by Jamie Davis that we were dressing but we weren’t playing,” a remorseful McGuire said about having to be a spectator.
“I figured I’d better have a really good game when I got a chance to play again,” he reasoned.
McGuire did just that—lighting up Dryden (8-6-0-1) to send the Muskies into the NorWOSSA playoffs looking for a ninth-straight league title.
That quest begins tonight with Game 1 of their best-of-three semi-final showdown against the fourth-place Sioux Lookout Warriors (7-5-1-2).
Game time is 7:15 p.m. at the Ice For Kids Arena.
But just what lineup will take the ice tonight for the Muskies will be a mystery right up until the puck drops.
Defencemen Colton Bodnar and Max Williams were confirmed as out of action for Game 1 by Davis, who will count on the Ossachuk to get the job done between the pipes.
Meanwhile, illness has cut a wide swath through the Muskies’ roster, with as many as five other players under the weather and considered questionable for tonight.
“Sioux Lookout are tough to play against, especially in their own building,” noted Davis, whose team won all three games in the season series by a combined score of 23-7.
“We have to keep our feet moving and the puck moving, and get our noses dirty and come out with the loose pucks,” he stressed.
Game 2 goes Saturday in Sioux Lookout, with Game 3 (if necessary) back here Monday at 7:15 p.m. at the IFK Arena.
