Staff
The Muskie boys’ hockey team is halfway to yet another NorWOSSA crown.
Jarred Taylor and Max Williams each tallied twice to lift Fort High to a 5-2 victory over the host Kenora Broncos and a sweep of their best-of-three semi-final series.
“Kenora came ready to play, which was nice to see,” noted Muskie head coach Jamie Davis.
“It was a good game.
“I think we were a little slow at the start but there was lots of back-and-forth play with opportunities each way,” he added.
The Dryden Eagles swept the Sioux Lookout Warriors in the other semi-final—setting up a clash of the top two teams in NorWOSSA in the best-of-three final that begins Monday at 7:45 p.m. at the Ice For Kids Arena.
Game 2 is set for Dryden next Thursday (Feb. 26).
Game 3, if necessary, will be back at the IFK Arena next Friday (Feb. 27) at 7:15 p.m.
The Muskies are vying for their eighth-straight NorWOSSA title, which would lead to their 35th appearance overall at the OFSAA ‘AA’ championships March 9-12 in Pembroke/Petawawa.
The fourth-place Broncos were a much more rigourous opponent for the Muskies last night than what they showed in getting crushed 9-1 in Game 1 here Tuesday.
Kenora opened the scoring on a breakaway goal by Scott Fleischer in the first.
Fort High tied the game on Tyler VanUden’s marker later in the first, and then jumped ahead in the second on power-play markers by Taylor and Williams.
Kenora made it 3-2 before the end of the period on a goal by Riley Beacham.
The Muskies’ penalty-killing units came through big-time in the third, killing off all four Kenora man-advantage chances.
Williams, meanwhile, netted his second of the game before Taylor added an empty-netter in the dying seconds to ice the victory.
Dylan Ossachuk earned the win in goal.
The regular-season champion Muskies’ only blemish in a 14-1 NorWOSSA campaign came against Dryden in a 6-4 loss there back on Jan. 12.
But Fort High won the season series—beating Dryden 7-3 in their regular-season opener Nov. 13 and then 8-3 on Dec. 5, both times at home.
Injured forward Kendyn Faragher (shoulder) is doubtful for Game 1 of the final.
He remains listed as “day-to-day.”
In related news, the Muskie girls can sweep their best-of-three NorWOSSA semi-final against the St. Thomas Aquinas Saints tomorrow in Kenora.
Should the Saints win, Game 3 will be played here Sunday at 1:15 p.m. at the ’52 Canadians Arena.
