Joey Payeur
The head coach was happy but at least one of his veterans wasn’t as ready to share in his good mood.
There was a slight difference of opinion in the air after the Muskie girls’ hockey team fell 6-2 to the Warroad Warriors in exhibition play here last Thursday night.
Scott Clendenning lauded his team’s effort when comparing it to an 8-1 loss to the Warriors in Warroad back on Nov. 14.
“Overall, I think the girls played hard every shift,” said Clendenning, whose squad was down to 10 forwards for the game due to the absence of Grade 12 veteran Claire Sandelovich (personal).
“Regardless of the score, we got after them hard,” he noted.
“But you’ve got to give it to their goalie [Dani Knott],” Clendenning added. “We had our opportunities and couldn’t capitalize.”
Grade 12 forward Jessica Coran, who would have rather exchanged the loss for a win on what was her 18th birthday, saw things in another light.
“We’re in a slump right now and we’re trying to get out of it,” she declared.
“We have to come out from the first minute ready to play.”
The Warriors, who sit in second place in the Section 7 standings with a 5-2-1 record and are 12-7-3 overall this season, got on the board early.
Tiffani Foster slid the puck across the crease to Hannah Christian, who tapped it in past defenceless goalie Kate Parsons at 3:43 of the first.
Fort High later had a two-man advantage for 49 seconds but couldn’t cash in.
That proved costly on the Warriors’ first power-play of the game after Lauren Hamilton was whistled for cross-checking.
Five seconds after the penalty began, Francesca Huerd corralled Katie Kotlowski’s face-off win and fired a quick shot that may have deflected off a Muskie stick in front past Parsons for a 2-0 lead.
The Muskies did make some noise with the man advantage about two minutes later—courtesy of the birthday girl herself.
Amy Penner blasted one from the left wing that Knott got a pad on. But in doing so, she kicked it right to Coran, who got just enough of the puck to put it into the right side of the net.
“I was just hoping [Penner] would see me,” said Coran.
“I just got the rebound and put it in.”
But 55 seconds later, the Warriors again applied pressure in the Muskie zone and came away with the puck, with Grace Pederson finding Huerd in the slot to make it 3-1.
Warroad stayed on the attack in the second period as Huerd connected on a Mariah Gardner feed stick-side on Parsons.
A parade of penalties highlighted the rest of the middle frame as the game took on a more aggressive tone.
The Warriors initiated most of the physical play, taking four-straight penalties in a span of 2:29 bridging the second and third periods to give Fort High a lengthy stint of being two skaters up.
But with a golden opportunity to get back in the game, the black-and-gold only could light the lamp once as Jenna Clendenning converted Janelle Kaemingh’s pass from behind the net at 2:47 of the third to trim the deficit to 4-2.
“We talked in the dressing room between periods that if we could pop a couple on the power play, then it’s game on,” Scott Clendenning noted.
“It’s unfortunate we only got the one.”
Warroad then made hay on its power play twice more to put the game away.
“Warroad has a lengthy hockey history and they’re a well-coached team,” said Clendenning.
“It’s a great team for our girls to play and we’re only going to get better playing teams like this,” he reasoned.
Grade 9 forward Taylor Croswell also tipped her helmet to Knott.
“We got lots of shots but their goalie was really good,” she said.
“I think compared to where we were from the beginning of the year, we’re working together a lot more now,” Croswell added.
The coach certainly wants the perceived progress to continue.
“We’ve got to bring that energy level, that intensity and that grittiness, in every game going forward,” he stressed.
The Muskies have this week off due to final exams at Fort High.
Their next game is slated for this coming Monday when the St. Thomas Aquinas Saints (Kenora) visit the Ice For Kids Arena at 7:15 p.m.
It’s then a quick turnaround for a rematch with the Saints on Tuesday at the IFK Arena at 12:30 p.m.
