Joey Payeur
Travel can be a killer in the latter stages of a physically-demanding season.
That’s why a last-minute switch in transportation from land to air might be the ‘X’ factor that propels the Muskie boys’ hockey team to greater heights.
With the originally-planned coach bus unavailable for service, Fort High instead will fly to Toronto before hopping a quick bus to nearby Burlington for the start of the OFSAA ‘AA’ championships running March 18-21.
“It’s huge,” Muskie head coach Jamie Davis said about the trip change.
“You go from 24 hours on a bus to a four-hour bus ride to Thunder Bay, and an hour and 40-minute flight to Toronto, and a short bus trip to Burlington and you’re getting there in a quarter of the time,” he noted.
“It can do nothing but help.”
The black-and-gold parlayed a 14-1 regular-season record, followed by a spotless four-game march to the NorWOSSA crown, into the No. 5 seed at the 20-team OFSAA tournament, which will hold its playoff rounds in Oakville.
Also in Pool ‘G’ with the Muskies are the third-seeded Robert F. Hall Catholic Secondary School Wolfpack (Caledon), No. 10 La Salle Secondary School Black Knights (Kingston), No. 15 Anne & Max Tanenbaum Community Hebrew Academy Tigers (Toronto), and No. 18 Timmins High and Vocational School Blues (Timmins).
All of these teams will be unknown quantities to Fort High, although Davis expected the same to be true going the other direction.
“They’re all there for a reason,” he remarked.
“Kenno [Muskie assistant coach Ken Christiansen] said he’s seen No. 18 seeds go on to the gold-medal final, so we can’t take anyone lightly,” Davis stressed.
In what could be a good omen for their hunt for a fourth provincial title, Fort High holds the distinction of being the school in the field with the most recent championship victory back in 2001.
But Davis wasn’t putting much stock in that information.
“It’s so tough to keep a high school team together year after year,” he reasoned.
“It’s not like in junior where you stay together three or four years.”
Taking into account the subjectivity of the seedings, the Muskies seem to have the best possible schedule in their pool.
They begin play Tuesday at 9 a.m. against the Blues, then will have a short turnaround before taking on the Tigers at 2 p.m. (all times CDT).
The Muskies continue their pattern of facing
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slowly-improving seeds next Wednesday at 7:15 a.m. by facing the Black Knights, who went 8-3-1 in the regular season before losing its league final to the ‘AAA’-level Holy Cross Crusaders,
La Salle is led by forward Wyatt Crampton and Cam Blakely, with Kenton Carmody in charge of safeguarding the Black Knights’ net.
Fort High then will have the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon to rest for what could be a crucial closing game in pool play at 5 p.m. against the Wolfpack, who only will have been off the ice for less than two hours following an early-afternoon clash with Timmins.
“I’m not really worried about the schedule,” shrugged Davis. “We’ll just deal with it.
“Sometimes it’s better to have that short span between games if you get off to a good start and get the chance to play soon after.
“The boys are in the right frame of mind as they have been throughout the playoffs,” he added.
“That first game is going to be key.”
Davis hopes his older veterans with previous OFSAA experience will be able to guide the younger hands through the minefield of an all-Ontario championship.
“With having some of the guys having been there, that helps a lot,” he stressed.
“We’ve got to have a short memory and find a way to be consistent.”
The Muskies, meanwhile, are likely to raise a few eyebrows when they board the plane after every single player got themselves into a hairy situation.
To the man, they shaved, cut, or dyed their hair in radical fashion as part of a team bonding experience in advance of the playoffs.
“We’ve got 20 wild haircuts going on,” chuckled Davis, who hinted similar creative coiffures may appear on the heads of the coaching staff should the Muskies’ hunt for gold pan out.
“Kenno is the one that made the deal with them,” Davis laughed.
“That’s all I’m going to say about it right now.”
