Dan Falloon
Girls ousted
by Broncos
Being able to stymie Rams is one thing.
Clipping Eagles will be another.
The Muskie boys’ hockey team swept the Red Lake Rams 2-0 in their best-of-three NorWOSSA semi-final to advance to the league final against the Dryden Eagles.
The black-and-gold pummelled Red Lake 13-2 in the opener here Friday night before moving on with an 8-2 victory there Sunday.
Colton Spicer got things started in the opening game with a snapper over Rams’ goalie Walker Chagnon.
Devin Ball followed with a power-play wrister before Spicer wired a shot off the crossbar and in to put Fort High up 3-0 after one.
The Muskies extended their lead to 5-0 on goals by Jeff Cridland and Jeff Davis just 31 seconds apart early in the second.
After Red Lake got on the board with a cross-crease tap-in by Casey Anderson, Davis Smith and Cridland put the Muskies up 7-1 before the period was through by tallying 2:43 apart.
The Muskies fired 18 shots at Chagnon in the middle frame to give them a total of 31 after two.
Aaron Pace netted the Rams’ second goal of the night early in the third, dashing out on a breakaway and putting a backhand over Devin Stromness.
But it was all Muskies from then on in as Ball completed the hat trick with a pair in the frame.
Smith, Davis, Nick Jourdain, and Brendan Cawston rounded out the attack against Red Lake goalie Devi Feigl, who came in to start the third period.
Then in yesterday’s clincher, Cawston led the way with a hat trick while Smith added a pair.
Jourdain, Ball, and Dustin Brownhad singles to round out the scoring.
Fort High now will face Dryden, who got past the Kenora Broncos by scores of 6-2 and 2-1 in their best-of-three semi-final showdown
The best-of-three NorWOSSA final opens here Friday at 7:30 p.m., with Game 2 on Sunday in Dryden.
Game 3, if necessary, would be played back here next Tuesday night (March 9).
The two teams split their regular-season series 2-2, with Fort High capturing the first two by scores of 6-3 and 8-1.
But the Eagles came away with wins of 4-3 (overtime) and 5-2 in the last two.
On the girls’ side, the Muskies were swept 2-0 after a pair of third-period letdowns in their best-of-three semi-final series with the Kenora Broncos.
The Muskies’ had jumped ahead of the Broncos by similar 4-2 margins after two periods both in Friday night’s opener in Kenora and then Game 2 here yesterday afternoon.
But both times, the Broncos edged their way back in, triumphing 6-4 on Friday night and then 6-5 in overtime yesterday.
Danielle Jean scored twice in the opener, while Jillian Langtry and Jessie Baker added singles, but it wasn’t enough as the Broncos fought back.
Then yesterday, Kenora took a 1-0 lead 6:19 into the first as Layne Lampshire got off a clean shot on a power play that beat Muskie goalie Melissa Payne stick side.
That score remained for over a period until Langtry put a rebound past Kenora goalie Stephanie Ferguson at 8:25.
Fort High took the lead just over a minute later when Nicole Beadle redirected Anikka McTavish’s shot at 9:31.
The Muskies then showed off their quick-strike offence a little later in the frame as Langtry and Jean both got breakaways 1:23 apart and put the puck past Ferguson with nearly identical dekes to the stick side to give Fort High a 4-1 lead.
Kenora inched closer before the period was through when Linnea Vaudry put a one-timer past Payne while on the power play at 17:27.
The Muskies were dealt a huge blow as the period expired, though, as Payne hit the back of her neck on the crossbar before lying on the ice for nearly half-an-hour.
She eventually was taken off on a stretcher, but coach Mel Langtry said many of the steps taken were precautionary and that his goalie would be fine.
In the third, the Broncos showed no mercy to back-up goalie Dana Cridland, scoring less than a minute in.
Shae-lynn Smith tipped one past Ferguson midway through the frame to regain Fort High’s two-goal advantage, but the Muskies then got into penalty trouble.
Vaudry blasted her second of the game at 14:25, then the Broncos tied it off a scramble at 16:33.
Moments before the equalizer, Fort High’s Erika Tymkin had just missed snapping a shot through Ferguson’s five-hole.
Kenora secured the win 8:35 into overtime when Ainsley Lindquist drove one that flew over Cridland’s glove and into the back of the net for the 6-5 win.
The Broncos now will face the winner of the semi-final series between Dryden and St. Thomas Aquinas, who will play a winner-take-all Game 3 tomorrow night in Dryden.
