Joey Payeur
Five days away from game action probably will feel like five weeks for the Muskie boys’ hockey team.
A gruelling schedule of five games in six days last week culminated in a 4-1 loss to the host International Falls Broncos on Saturday in an impromptu Part III to this season’s “Border Battle.”
The sudden death of a member of the Lake of the Woods Bears boys’ team from Baudette, and subsequent cancellation of its game with the Falls, left the Broncos without an opponent for its annual “Seniors’ Night” game.
The Muskies stepped in to fill the breach on just one day’s rest after completing its NorWOSSA regular season with a 4-3 loss to the Dryden Eagles last Thursday night–their fourth game in four days–to wind up 14-1 in league play.
“I’m not very concerned with it,” said Muskie head coach Jordan Sinclair.
“Losing sucks always, but it’s just another game for us and it exposed some areas we want to clean up,” he reasoned.
“These are high school kids, not machines. It’s not time to panic,” Sinclair stressed.
“We’ll take three days off, get away from hockey, and then get ready to go to work.”
That work involves getting the nine-time defending NorWOSSA champs ready to face the fourth-place Sioux Lookout Warriors in their best-of-three semi-final series.
Game 1 goes Friday at the special start time of 5:15 p.m. at the Ice For Kids Arena.
Sioux Lookout will host Game 2 on Monday, with Game 3 (if necessary) back here next Wednesday (time and venue undetermined as of press time).
Fort High won all three games against Sioux Lookout (8-6-1) during the regular season, but the Warriors scored four goals in each of the losses and proved themselves a much tougher foe than in recent seasons.
Against the Falls, James Gushulak found an extra gear to leave two Falls’ defenders chewing on his dust as he went in alone to beat goalie Jake Klow to open the scoring at 6:27 of the second period Saturday.
“[Gushulak] has been a good player for us with some great offensive upside,” said Sinclair.
“His skating is really his strength, and we’ve been preaching to him and been on him about it.
“Sometimes he tries to overdo it and beat that one extra guy and we’ve told him if he simplifies his game, he’ll be more effective,” Sinclair added.
“That happened for the better part of tonight and certainly on his goal.”
But the Broncos tied it just 57 seconds later when a thwarted wraparound attempt by Trimble Butler squirted into the slot and promptly was rifled home by Brock O’Loughlin.
Halfway through the second, Sinclair executed a pre-arranged goalie switch–putting in Spencer Murphy for starter Matt Booth.
“Normally, I wouldn’t pull a guy who was playing as good as Matt was and if he still had the shutout, I might have left him in there,” Sinclair remarked.
Murphy was beaten by Brett Lindvall 1:50 into the third on a rebound in front to give the Broncos, who had lost the two previous meetings with the Muskies this season by scores of 1-0 and 5-3, their first lead of the night.
Penalty trouble cost the Muskies later in the period, with Sheldon Kelly Jr. (cross-checking) and captain Mike Drouin (tripping) whistled five seconds apart to set up a lengthy two-man advantage for the Falls.
Riley Nemec rubbed salt in the wound at 8:40 when his shot from the point went off the post and then appeared to have been gloved in by an unidentified Bronco, with the goal being ruled good.
“We shouldn’t have been 5-on-3 in the first place,” Sinclair fumed. “That was a soft call [on Drouin] when we were already down a man in a 2-1 game.
“Then it seemed pretty blatant that it was thrown into the net.
“I guess they were getting us back for the goal of theirs in the Fort that went in but didn’t count,” he said.
A Landon Woods turnover at the Falls’ blueline was taken back the other way for a breakaway by Tyler Coffield.
Murphy stopped Coffield but the Muskies were slow getting back defensively–giving time for Nemec and then Brady Wright to have rebound opportunities, with Wright cashing his in at 10:56.
