Joey Payeur
It took until the last game but Scott Clendenning finally got to see his team perform to its potential.
The head coach of the Muskie girls’ hockey team watched his troops post a 1-2 record to finish tied for third in the Girls’ Varsity Blue Division of the annual Schwan Cup tournament in Blaine, Mn. last week.
“The competition level we went up against was great but our overall commitment in a couple of the games could have been higher,” admitted Clendenning.
“The three practices we had before we went down were quite high-tempo and I thought we were in pretty good shape,” he noted.
“But these are ‘AA’ schools were going up against down there and you’re going to get pushed to the limit,” Clendenning said.
“I was hoping for a better response in some of the games.”
A first-period goal by Annalise Hayes in the Muskies’ opening game didn’t stand up as the East Ridge Raptors (Woodbury, Mn.) rallied for a 2-1 victory on New Year’s Day.
Braeden Yeo tied it at 5:09 of the second before Grace Heiting notched a power-play marker 1:56 later (with Muskie captain Amy Penner in the box for tripping) for the game-winner.
Chloe Heiting made 12 saves for the victory while Kate Parsons turned aside 19 shots in a losing cause.
In their second game Friday, the Muskies again had trouble generating much in the way of offence—falling 4-0 to the Spring Lake Park (Mn.) Panthers.
The Panthers outshot Fort High 30-15 and got all the scoring they needed in the first period.
Hannah Schultz beat Muskie goalie Calie Clendenning at 8:04 of the first before Maddy Wallraff doubled the lead at 12:30 during a man-advantage after Sam McKinnon was whistled for a hooking minor.
Schultz made it 3-0 only 1:50 into the second, then Lindsey Nelson rounded out the scoring with the lone goal of the third.
Molly Sienko stopped all 15 shots she faced while Clendenning made 26 saves.
A more-determined Muskie team took to the ice for its tourney finale against the North Metro Blazers (Oak Grove, Mn.) on Saturday.
Fort High exploded out of the gate when Janelle Kaemingh converted Kaily Greengrass’ feed from behind Blazers’ goalie Molly Dreblow only 1:05 into the game.
The Muskies stretched the lead in the second on goals by Alexis Perreault and Penner.
Emily Ach’s power-play marker early in the third, with McKinnon off for elbowing, cut the lead to two. But it quickly was countered by Penner’s second of the game on a Muskies’ man-advantage to make it 4-1.
But the Blazers would not go quietly.
Ach struck again on the power-play with Claire Sandelovich off for tripping before Maggie Koethe’s unassisted tally just over a minute later shrunk the gap to 4-3.
Brooke Rainerson then completed the three-goal flurry by snapping the puck past Clendenning to tie the game.
With all the momentum on North Metro’s side, the Muskies used a makeshift line necessitated by a couple of injuries to net the decisive marker just over two minutes into overtime.
With regular linemates Penner and Coran both knocked out of action, Hayes came on for the second shift of the extra session with Emma Noga and Rylee Redford.
Noga tracked down the puck in the corner and fed it out front to Hayes, who corralled it and zipped it in to send the Muskies home happy.
“That last game was fantastic, other than letting them crawl back into it down 4-1,” said Clendenning.
“We played our best hockey in that last game,” he noted.
“After the fourth goal, it was the old adage where you’ve got to play to the end and we took our foot off the gas and got caught,” he conceded.
“But it was a good character win to finish the tournament with and it showed the girls we can play at that level.”
That kind of effort is something Clendenning hopes will carry over to the squad’s first NorWOSSA game after the holiday break tomorrow in Dryden against the Eagles.
“If we play like we did in that last game, we will be successful [tomorrow],” said Clendenning, who is optimistic Penner and Coran will be back for the Muskies (4-1), who sit in second place in NorWOSSA behind Dryden (5-0).
“It was great to see that kind of energy level and we’ve got to be committed to playing that way every shift, every period,” he stressed.
The Muskies’ next home game is this Monday (Jan. 12) when they host the back half of their annual home-and-home exhibition series against the International Falls Broncos.
Game time is 7:15 p.m. at the Ice For Kids Arena.
Fort High won the opening game of the series 5-3 back on Dec. 2 over at Bronco Arena.
