Joey Payeur
Amber Jourdain’s journey this season started in the dog days of August, skating miles in front of empty stands at a hockey camp at the new Couchiching Arena.
That dedication—combined with the efforts of her teammates—culminated in a memory she and the rest of the Muskie girls’ hockey team will never forget.
Jourdain’s goal at 7:41 of the second period stood up in the face of a furious challenge by the host Dryden Eagles to give Fort High a 4-3 victory in Game 2 of the best-of-three NorWOSSA final Sunday afternoon.
The black-and-gold swept the series 2-0—winning the opener 3-1 here Saturday night—to capture the first NorWOSSA title in the team’s 14-year history and also its inaugural berth at the OFSAA ‘AA’ championship (slated for March 18-21 in Sudbury).
“We’ve come a long way,” enthused Jourdain, who charged out of the corner and lifted a backhander past Eagles’ goalie C.J. Jolicoeur to give her team a 4-1 edge.
“I’m so happy all our hard work is paying off,” she added.
“This feels amazing.
“The girl defending me moved over to watch Shelby [Tymkin] and I saw the lane open up,” Jourdain recalled.
“I saw the hole [Jolicoeur] left, and I just took it to the net and put it in.”
The final buzzer also signalled the end of a season for the ages, with the Muskies going 19-0 in NorWOSSA play (15-0 during the regular season and then 4-0 in the playoffs).
“I’m very proud to be part of Muskie history,” grinned goalie Kate Parsons, who won both games of the series by getting back-to-back starts—the first time that’s happened after sharing a season-long rotation with netminding colleague Calie Clendenning.
“Now we get to go to OFSAA and represent Fort Frances,” she enthused.
“Everyone is ecstatic.”
The Muskies got rolling early, with Katie Sinclair tipping home Sarah Milling’s point shot at 3:04 of the first.
Hailey Clendenning doubled the lead at 13:22—picking up the puck just ahead of the Dryden blueline before rifling a 25-footer high to the glove side of Jolicoeur.
Dryden turned a negative into a positive at the four-minute mark of the second.
After Sydney Allan was handed a double minor for a check to the head, Eagles’ captain Martina Wintle was sprung loose on a breakaway.
Her shot caught the crossbar but Elizabeth Carter plowed in to poke home the rebound for a short-handed tally and a seemingly huge momentum-changer.
But only 1:52 later, during the same power-play, Lauren Vold short-circuited the energy of the hometown crowd by blasting a point shot through a maze of bodies to restore the two-goal lead, with Tymkin and Sinclair collecting assists.
“All year I’ve been trying to get a goal from the point,” smiled Vold, who admittedly was surprised the puck found the back of the net.
“Everyone kept saying, ‘You’ll get it.’ Finally, I did.
“I couldn’t believe it.”
Jourdain seemingly turned out the lights with her tally less than two minutes later. But the Eagles would not fade quietly into the darkness.
Wintle turned into “Captain Comeback”—scoring on a rebound from in close at 6:09.
Then just 46 seconds later, her long shot ricocheted off Parsons’ glove and rolled to the goalline.
No Muskie defender played the puck and it was ruled as having gone in, although Tymkin swore it never crossed the line.
“Usually, when I let in a goal, everyone comes by and says, “It’s OK, Kate,’” a sheepish Parsons said.
“Nobody did that this time,” she chuckled.
“That’s understandable because it was a shoddy goal. But when we called time-out right after that, I skated to the bench and [assistant coach] Michelle [Veldhuisen] told me to just keep my head in the game,” Parsons added.
“That helped put me back in the zone.”
Dryden kept up the pressure—getting three power-plays in the last 10 minutes on consecutive calls to Claire Sandelovich and then a highly-questionable interference call to Sinclair with 1:47 left.
That opened the door for the Eagles to pull Jolicoeur for a 6-on-4 opportunity to try and tie the game.
Sinclair, surprisingly, wasn’t sweating it out in the sin bin.
“Usually, when I get a penalty, I bawl or get [angry] at myself,” she admitted.
“But when it’s for something I know I didn’t do, I had no doubt my team was going to pull through.”
The Muskies proved Sinclair correct by holding the fort, with Parsons making a pair of big-time saves in the final two minutes as part of a perfect penalty-killing effort for Fort High, who held the Eagles 0-for-7 with the man advantage.
Muskie head coach Scott Clendenning paid homage to those who came before him since the program’s birth in the fall of 2000.
“From the people who were part of the grassroots of the program and started things, to all the coaches and everyone involved, they were all part of creating what we have today,” he stressed.
Saturday night’s win here was highlighted by a natural hat trick by Kaily Greengrass, who did her best work early and late in the first two periods.
Her one-timer off a feed from Sandelovich made it 1-0 at 1:28 of the opening frame.
She then raced in to zip home a rebound of Sandelovich’s shot at 1:13 of the second.
Wintle popped home a loss puck at 8:42 to keep Dryden within range.
But Milling made a terrific pinch to keep the puck in the Eagles’ zone, then went in the corner to feed Greengrass, who had gone to cover the vacant blueline.
The 30-foot bomb that left Greengrass’ stick ticked off the far post and in for the insurance marker.
“With Kaily, every game she shows up to play,” noted Clendenning.
“It was great to see those goals for her.”
The seedings and schedule for OFSAA were expected to be released by week’s end.
Clendenning expects his team to wind up seeded somewhere in the middle of the 20-team field, with their stellar season record balanced out by their first-time status.
