Mitch Calvert
The Muskie girls’ hockey team earned their first win in NorWOSSA play after edging the Kenora Broncos 3-2 there Friday night.
Courtney Easton opened the scoring early in the second period on a pass from Kristen Penner, then Lauren Krukoski extended the Muskies lead to 2-0 with a shorthanded effort late in the middle frame.
Julie Cane narrowed the deficit to one early in the third, but Lindsay Roehrig scored off a rebound from Annika McTavish’s point shot and to regain the Muskies’ two-goal lead.
Sam Smith netted a goal with nine seconds left to make things interesting, but it was a case of too little, too late for the host Broncos.
“It was a lot different game than the score suggested,” Muskie coach Chris Hill said. “The puck was in their end the whole night, they scored a late goal to narrow it down, but I think the shots were something like 32-19.
“The girls earned it,” he added.
Newcomer Katrina Smith earned the win in her first regular-season start between the pipes.
“She played really solid for us, made a couple key saves when we needed them, and helped kill off a 5-on-3 early,” Hill noted.
“The girls forechecked really well,” he added. “[Kenora’s] goalie really made a lot of good saves, but it was exciting to see a lot of action around the net because eventually it’s gotta pay off.”
The hard-earned victory bodes well for the squad, who opened the NorWOSSA season last week with a 2-1 overtime loss to the Dryden Eagles, since they have to gel quickly with a heavy game and tournament schedule coming at them the rest of this month.
“The girls were all excited on the bench, and it was kind of a feel-good game to get that first league win,” Hill enthused.
The black-and-gold hosted Kenora last night (the outcome wasn’t known as of press time) and then will travel to Altona, Man. tomorrow for a tournament beginning Friday.
“We’ll continue to work on the power play and penalty kill,” Hill said of their preparations for the tournament.
“[We’ve] been just kind of rotating through our lines, kind of been shuffling things around, but we need to work on finishing our opportunities, as well,” he stressed.
