Joey Payeur
The top line for the Muskie girls’ hockey team was a threat all night–both to the St. Thomas Aquinas Saints and their own chances.
In the end, everything worked out for the best for the black-and-gold, who earned a 4-2 win Friday night at the Ice For Kids Arena to take Game 1 of the best-of-three NorWOSSA final.
The Muskies can claim their fourth-straight league title, and earn another berth to the OFSAA ‘A/AA’ championship, with a victory tonight in Game 2 in Kenora.
Game 3, if necessary, would be held Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at “The Duke” (Couchiching Arena).
Annalise (CC) Hayes had two goals, including the game-winner at 7:02 of the third, and she and linemates Janelle Kaemingh and Lauren Hamilton buzzed around the Saints’ net almost every time they were on the ice.
But staying on the ice also was a problem for the trio as Hayes, Kaemingh, and
Hamilton accounted for all five Saints’ power plays in the game the Muskie penalty-killers were able to keep to just one goal in those chances.
“We play aggressive, they play aggressive–we’re just able to stay on our feet,” noted Hayes.
“I was a little bit surprised they gave us that much of a fight,” she admitted.
“You could tell they wanted to win. We just wanted it more.”
Hayes opened the scoring at 11:02 of the second when she rifled a shot past Saints’ goalie Sarah From.
But Seanna Cyncora came right back just 20 seconds later for the first-time NorWOSSA finalists by wristing a 25-footer that caught Muskie goalie Sydney Beck off guard.
Then with 1:43 left in the period, and just seven seconds into a power play, the Muskies regained the lead thanks to the newly-promoted Kelsey Langtry.
Moved up to the second line with Siobhan Mackintosh out of action due to illness, Langtry parked in front of the net and deflected Alex Gartzke’s blast from the left point after a clean face-off win by Taylor Croswell.
“I felt it hit my stick but I didn’t expect that to happen,” grinned Langtry.
“I was thinking, ‘It better be low or this is going to hurt,'” she laughed.
“Kelsey stepping up like she did gave us more motivation and made us work harder,” noted Hayes.
The Saints tied it at 4:52 of the third when a Muskie defender lost her footing behind the net, allowing Chelsea Henderson to fish the puck out to Shania White, whose cross-crease pass was re-directed past Beck by Avery Kasprick.
Just over two minutes later, Kaemingh found herself alone at the side of the net and stuffed the puck through From.
The puck lay tantalizingly on the goalline and before From could reach behind her and grab it, Hayes poked it home.
“That gave us the lead and we couldn’t back down after that,” said Hayes, the Muskies’ leading scorer this season.
From raced to the bench for an extra attacker with 1:30 left.
But great forechecking by Langtry and Croswell eventually led to Jenna Clendenning stealing the puck and sliding home an empty-netter with 24 seconds to go.
“We don’t want to bring the series back home,” stressed Hayes.
“We’re one step closer to OFSAA.”
This year’s all-Ontarios, set for March 21-23, will be held in Stratford for a second-straight year after North Bay pulled out as the original host.
