Lucas Punkari
In the end, all that was needed to get the offence rolling for the Muskie boys’ hockey team was a little bit of time.
After a strong showing at a tournament in Brandon, Man. the previous weekend, the black-and-gold were looking to continue their improving offensive attack in a pair of NorWOSSA games this past week.
The perennial league powerhouse showed its offensive skills Saturday night at the ’52 Canadians Arena here in a 8-0 thrashing of the Red Lake Rams, which came on the heels of a 4-3 triumph over the St. Thomas Aquinas Saints in Kenora last Thursday.
“I thought that we played pretty good this week,” said Grade 12 centre Nick Jourdain.
“In our first game against St. Thomas, we were a little bit slow to start off until the third period, when we started to get rolling,” he noted.
“And then against Red Lake here, we really took it to them.”
Against the host Saints on Thursday night, Fort High held the lead for most of the game until St. Thomas scored a couple of power-play goals to knot things up.
But Nick Kaun found the back of the net late in the third period to seal the win.
“T.A. played well, and they are a nice team,” said Muskie head coach Shawn Jourdain.
“But we didn’t play too well ourselves,” he admitted.
“Our compete level just wasn’t there, especially when they [St. Thomas] came out playing a lot higher than we did,” Jourdain added.
“And we also ended up spending a lot of time playing shorthanded, which allowed them to tie it up.”
Jeff Davis, Tarran Romyn, and Braden Webb also scored in the victory.
Then here Saturday night, Fort High made sure they put the game out of reach early, jumping out to a 3-0 lead on Red Lake in the first period and never looking back.
“We just got on them quickly and we also came out to compete that night, which really helped with that,” Shawn Jourdain said.
“If we can play like that every night, I think we will be fine for the rest of the year,” he remarked.
“And that’s the message we will be giving to the guys, especially before our league games.”
Nick Jourdain led the offence Saturday night with a hat trick and an assist while Romyn had three assists.
Tyler Mosbeck and Ryan Windigo also chipped in with two-point outings. Mosbeck scored a pair of goals while Windigo had a goal and an assist.
“Everyone was playing good, and we were able to get all over Red Lake and not give them any time to think out there,” Nick Jourdain recalled.
“We’re also finally able to score some goals, as well, which we struggled in against Dryden and Kenora earlier this year,” he added.
“But we have been getting a lot better in our practices just by working on our shots and our rebound opportunities.”
Sporting a league-leading 4-0-0-1 record, the Muskies will look to continue their winning ways in NorWOSSA play tomorrow (Dec. 15) when they welcome the Sioux Lookout Warriors to the Ice For Kids Arena for a 7:15 tilt.
“They [Sioux Lookout] have been playing pretty good this year, and the league itself has proven to be very tight this year,” Shawn Jourdain warned.
“However, we are just going to be focusing on what we do out there. And if we can play like we did on Saturday night against Red Lake, we will be just fine.”
Following that contest, the Muskies will head on the road to face Red Lake on Monday night, and then the Kenora Broncos on Tuesday evening, in what will be their last two NorWOSSA games before the Christmas break.
“When we face Red Lake, we will be looking to do the same thing we did this weekend here,” Nick Jourdain said.
“And against Kenora, we will be looking to come out strong on the start as we have been pretty slow against them this year and that is something we want to fix,” he stressed.
“If we can win both games there before we get into Christmas, that will be a big plus for us, especially in our league play.”
