Muskie boys thump Broncos

A win is a win—even if it wasn’t pretty.
The Muskie boys’ hockey team overcame a rash of mental errors and careless plays to dump the Kenora Broncos 6-1 last night at the Ice for Kids Arena.
But while Muskie head coach Shane Bliss was happy his team extended their unbeaten streak to 11 games, including pre-season and tournament action, he was not pleased with the black-and-gold’s on-ice execution.
“I wasn’t too happy with our first period,” he commented after the game. “I thought we were kind of sloppy.
“I keep harping on the fellas that we’ve got to be awake and alert every shift,” he added. “When we go on the ice, you have to be thinking about what you need to do if you have the puck or if you don’t have the puck.”
Matt Hebert opened the scoring at 14:14 of the first period after collecting a pass from Blake Wepruk and cutting hard to the front of the net. He then deked right before putting the puck on his backhand to beat Kenora goalie Greg Turner.
Joe Basaraba added to the Muskie lead late in the period on the power play, firing a hard shot off the near post and in to make it 2-0.
Riley Caul and Matt McLellan drew the assists.
Kenora cut into the lead before the end of the first on a goal by Braden Baker, but that was as close as the Broncos would get as the Muskies scored four unanswered goals over the final two periods to seal the win.
Kyle Turgeon scored twice as part of a three-point effort while George Halverson added a marker of his own.
Basaraba capped the Muskie scoring with his second goal of the night late in the third period.
The black-and-gold were coming off another successful weekend of play that saw them go undeated in four games to claim the Morden Thunder tournament.
Fort High opened play with a 2-1 win over the Mountain Mustangs on Friday afternoon, getting goals from Mike Jourdain and Joe Basaraba.
Jamie Kaun assisted both of them.
Then Friday night, the Muskies fell behind 2-0 to the John Taylor Pipers before rallying for five goals in the final two periods for a 5-2 win.
George Halverson, Matt Hebert, Joe Basaraba, Kyle Turgeon, and Pat Bobczynski were the Muskie snipers in that one.
The black-and-gold then faced the Kenora Broncos on Saturday afternoon and jumped out to a 6-0 lead after two periods on goals by Hebert, Matt DePiero, Matt McLellan, Zach McCool, as well as a pair from Halverson.
The Broncos scored a pair of third-period goals but it proved to be too little, too late.
In the championship game, the Muskies defeated the host Morden Thunder 5-3 in a hard-fought battle.
Fort High fell behind 1-0 but erased the deficit in the second period courtesy of goals by Zach McCool, Riley Caul, and Ryan Witherspoon.
The Thunder tied the game in the third period, but late goals from Halverson and Basaraba sealed the championship.
Next up for the Muskies is a trip to Red Lake to face the Rams on Friday night.