Staff
The Muskie boys’ hockey team can’t seem to lose right now—and that’s just how they want it to stay.
Fort High hosted the West Kildonan Wolverines (Winnipeg) for a pair of exhibition games here Friday and Saturday, romping to back-to-back victories of 14-4 and 11-0 while adding to a stretch of 15 games where they’ve lost just twice.
Believe it or not, the Wolverines actually opened the scoring in Friday night’s game, getting a goal from captain Cole Cassie.
But that seemed to wake up the Muskies as Blake Wepruk scored on a wraparound a little more than 10 seconds later to knot the score 1-1 going into the second period.
Zach McCool, with his first of two in the second, then ignited a five-goal outburst as Josh Scott, Matt DePiero, and Devin Ball had the others to give the Muskies a 6-1 edge after 40 minutes.
The Muskies seemed to have figured out Wolverines’ goalie Michael Zacharias—scoring often on high shots to the blocker side.
The third period saw plenty more scoring as McCool netted two more to give him four on the night while Ryan McDowall and Mike Jourdain added two of their own.
Brendan Cawston and Wepruk had the others for the Muskies while Cassie replied with another nice goal to provide one of the few bright spots for the Wolverines.
Justin Savard and David Brock also tallied for the visitors.
Saturday’s game featured much of the same dominance from the home side as the black-and-gold got two goals apiece from Jamie Kaun, Brett McMahon, Jourdain, and Matt Goldamer, along with singles from Wepruk, DePiero, and Ryan Shortreed in the lopsided 11-0 win.
The margin of victory was fairly expected since the Wolverines sport a 6-10 record in the second-tier True North division of the Winnipeg High School Hockey League.
“I liked the way the defencemen were moving the puck,” Muskie coach Shawn Jourdain said of the weekend series. “We worked on it all week long, getting the passes on the tape and not ringing it around the boards, and they took that extra step or hit to do it.
“And made it a lot easier getting it out of the zone on our breakouts,” he added.
The extra game action surely will benefit Muskies as they hosted the second-place Dryden Eagles in a big NorWOSSA battle here last night (the outcome was unavailable as of press time).
The Muskies next travel across the river to International Falls for a rematch with the Broncos on Monday (Jan. 19).
Fort High won the opener of their annual exhibition series with their cross-border rivals by a 4-3 score here back on Dec. 5.
