Staff
Playing some meaningful games did the Muskie boys’ hockey team some good.
After sweeping the Red Lake Rams in the semi-finals, the black-and-gold did the same to the Dryden Eagles in the NorWOSSA final to advance to the all-Ontarios in St. Catharines on March 23-26.
The Muskies opened the best-of-three series with a 5-4 overtime win here Friday night, then blanked the host Eagles 3-0 yesterday afternoon.
Fort High started quickly Friday as Donovan Cousineau, returning from a wrist injury, beat Eagles’ goalie Zach Lake 4:28 into the first.
Davis Smith and Dryden’s Jared Stratford then exchanged goals 14 seconds apart midway through the frame before Eagles’ forward Ryan Lobreau banged home a puck at 13:51 to even the score at 2-2.
Muskie forward Colton Spicer had a couple of glorious chances to take back the lead late in the period, having a wrister gloved by Lake before fanning on an open net.
The black-and-gold did regain the lead midway through the second, however, as Jacob Witherspoon, returning from a
concussion, slammed home a cross-crease pass from Cousineau at 11:34.
The Eagles fought back once again as Blair Dingwall tapped a feed from Ethan Egli past Muskie goalie Devin Stromness at 16:22 to knot the score.
The teams finished the period by exchanging wrist shot tallies as Cousineau and Lobreau each recorded their second goals of the game 1:18 apart to head into the second intermission tied at 4-4.
There was no scoring in the third, although each goalie was forced to make a key save to make that happen.
Lake was forced to respond to a redirection by Matt DePiero while Stromness stymied a wide-open Daimon Wesley late in regulation time.
Fort High didn’t waste much time wrapping up the win in overtime.
Spicer scored a bit of redemption when he fed assistant captain Brendan Cawston on a partial break.
Cawston then chipped the puck past Lake just before he and Lobreau careened into the goalie, sending all three players and the net flying.
In yesterday’s clincher, Spicer opened the scoring on the power play while captain Jamie Kaun also scored on the man-advantage to crank the lead to 2-0.
Kaun later added an empty-netter to seal the deal and send the Muskies to St. Catharines.
Wes Brown earned the shutout in goal.
And in more good news for the black-and gold, David Chambers returned from a concussion—becoming the third Muskie to return from injury over the weekend.
