Joey Payeur
It’s amazing what one group discussion can do.
The Muskie boys’ hockey team captured its first John Taylor Piper Classic Tournament of Champions crown in Winnipeg on Saturday with a convincing 7-4 win over the St. Paul’s Crusaders #1 team from there.
“The first three games of the tournament were not the way we should play or can play,” admitted Muskie head coach Jamie Davis, whose team went 2-0-1 during the round-robin to finish second in Pool ‘A.’
“There was a team meeting on Saturday morning with the players, and the rest of the day it was a totally different team,” Davis said.
“The message was just to execute,” he noted. “We were doing a lot of watching and not a lot of doing.”
That statement came through loud and clear for the black-and-gold—the only team out of the four in the championship bracket not to have won its pool.
But after blanking the Sturgeon Creek Huskies 5-0 in the semi-finals, Fort High earned long-awaited retribution against the Crusaders, who assistant coach Ken “Keno” Christiansen said had never lost to the Muskies.
St. Paul’s #1 had won four of the last five Classics, including last year when they nipped the Muskies 3-2 in the quarter-finals, which featured a disputed disallowed goal to prevent Fort High from tying the game.
“To beat a team like St. Paul’s is pretty cool,” said Davis.
“I thought we dominated the whole game.
“There was maybe a five- to eight-minute stretch where they had some momentum,” he added.
“But we outshot them for the game 44-15.”
Fort High took a 3-1 lead in the first on goals by Graeme Kitt, Matt Cheetham, and Max Williams (power play).
Tyler VanUden added another goal early in the second period but the Crusaders displayed their championship spirit with two goals within minutes of each other to cut the lead to 4-3.
VanUden delivered a momentum-halting marker with just over a minute to play in the middle frame. But Davis pointed to tournament MVP Chase McGuire’s marker right after that as the key tally.
“When we got up by three, I think that really took the wind out of their sails,” Davis said about the Grade 10 first-year forward, who finished second in tournament scoring with 11 points.
“Chase is a really under-rated player,” he noted. “He’s one of those kids you have to coach to really appreciate.
“There’s nothing outstanding about his game but he does everything well,” Davis explained.
“He was steady all weekend and it’s pretty neat for him to get the MVP.”
St. Paul’s replied with a power-play marker with seven minutes to go to pull within two.
But tournament all-star forward Jarred Taylor took away any suspense with his short-handed goal with three minutes left to ice the victory.
Dylan Ossachuk earned the win in goal for the Muskies, who had goalie Jordan Carlson and defenceman Carter Brown join Taylor on the all-star squad.
“Jordan had two shutouts in the two games he played so he was very deserving of being an all-star,” stressed Davis, who didn’t stray from his goalie platoon system for the final despite Carlson’s performance.
“Dylan lost in a shootout [in the opener] and gave up one goal in his other game, and he hung in and made the saves we needed in the final,” he noted.
“Two of the goals [St. Paul’s] got were not clean goals—one a seeing-eye shot through traffic and the other one Ossachuk got a piece of and it just rolled in.”
As for his captain, Davis was effusive in his praise for Brown.
“Carter stepped up on Saturday and played much better,” he remarked. “He was a force and was really irritating guys on the other team.
“He played physical and he played tough.”
On the heels of losing their tourney opener 1-0 in a shootout to Sturgeon Heights on Thursday night, the Muskies got the better of another defensive battle with a 2-0 shutout of the host Pipers the following morning.
McGuire and Brown had the goals in that one to complement Carlson’s perfection in net.
Then with a win essential to keeping their title hopes alive, Fort High had all guns blazing in an 8-1 romp over the Garden City Gophers (Winnipeg) that night.
Taylor led the way with four goals while McGuire netted a pair.
Cheetham and Mike Drouin added singles, with Ossachuk notching the win in goal.
Fort High took command in the opening two periods against Sturgeon Heights in the semi-finals, jumping out to a 4-0 lead.
Hunter Koles, McGuire, Kendyn Faragher, Brent Jourdain, and Cheetham all scored while Carlson posted the shutout.
The Muskies, who top the NorWOSSA standings at 10-1, returned to league action last night here against the Kenora Broncos (5-7).
The outcome was unavailable as of press time.
“Hopefully, we can keep it going and this can be a turning point for us,” said Davis, who will be without Faragher for the next two weeks or more with an upper-body injury suffered early in the final against St. Paul’s.
“I’d rather they face adversity now than two weeks from now,” he reasoned.
The Muskies next face the second-place Sioux Lookout Warriors (9-3) tomorrow at 7:15 p.m. at the Ice For Kids Arena.
Then they’ll head to Red Lake to face the winless Rams (0-13) on Monday.
In between, the squad will hold its annual tea and bake sale this Saturday (Feb. 7) from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. at the Fort High cafeteria.
