Joey Payeur
Jarred Taylor and Matt Cheetham scored seven seconds apart early in a four-goal first period here yesterday to spark the Muskie boys’ hockey team to a 7-3 victory over the Dryden Eagles and a 2-1 win in the best-of-three NorWOSSA final.
It was the team’s eighth-straight NorWOSSA crown.
Fort High dropped Game 1 at home 3-1 last Monday (Feb. 23) but rediscovered its form in a 6-1 triumph in Game 2 in Dryden on Thursday night.
Then they finished things off decisively in front of about 500 roaring fans at the Ice For Kids Arena.
The black-and-gold will be part of the OFSAA ‘A/AA’ championship for the 35th time, which will be held March 9-13 in Pembroke/Petawawa.
“I think with us being down [1-0] in the series, it made it a lot more interesting this year,” grinned Taylor, who got his first of two goals at 2:50 of the first when his attempted pass to Chase McGuire somehow bounced past Eagles’ goalie William Chukru.
“We believe in ourselves—it was do-or-die,” noted Cheetham, who converted Tyler VanUden’s pass on a 2-on-1 right after Taylor’s goal to make it 2-0.
“We didn’t want our season to be over.”
A Dryden time-out following Cheetham’s goal did little to dull the Muskies’ momentum as Cheetham added his second goal with a perfect deflection of Spencer Shortreed’s point shot during a power play.
The Eagles got on the board later in the first when Matt Pitchenese beat Jordan Carlson top corner.
But the Muskies replied about three minutes later when Cheetham’s pass across the crease hit a skate and sat like a golf ball on a tee for Graeme Kitt, who uncorked a missile into the empty side of the net.
Taylor’s second of the game on a rebound of his own shot made it 5-1 early in the second.
Mike Drouin then set up VanUden for a 30-foot one-timer just over a minute later.
That goal sent Chukru to the bench in favour of Game 1 hero Brady Desserre, who surprisingly did not get the call to start yesterday although he did take the loss in Game 2.
The Eagles responded positively to the switch, with Graham Oliphant’s power-play tally and Keith Wrolstad’s short-handed marker on a 2-on-0 breakaway sliced the lead to 6-3.
Carlson then made a tremendous rebound save off Pitchenese with four seconds left in the frame to prevent another short-handed goal.
That proved huge as Fort High netted the only goal of the third when Max Williams labelled a point shot past Desserre’s glove during another man advantage.
“We had to work for this one,” said relieved Muskie head coach Jamie Davis, who will bring a roster that includes eight veterans from last year’s OFSAA team that reached the quarter-finals.
“It’s a little more satisfying. It tests your character,” he reasoned.
The seedings and schedule for the all-Ontarios will be announced later this week.
