Joey Payeur
It was a long way to drive just to go up against a familiar foe—twice.
The Muskie girls’ hockey team ran into their NorWOSSA nemesis, the Dryden Eagles, on two separate occasions at the John Taylor Collegiate Piper Classic Tournament of Champions at the MTS Iceplex in Winnipeg over weekend.
Neither match-up went the way of the black-and-gold, which suffered a 3-2 shootout loss in the preliminary round, then were nipped 2-1 by the Ice Dogs in the bronze-medal game on Saturday to finish fourth at the tournament.
“We weren’t playing a good game whatsoever. We didn’t have our usual jump,” said Muskie coach Mel Langtry, whose squad was without two of their top scorers for the third-place showdown.
Shae-lynn Smith missed the entire tournament due to illness while Danielle Jean was unable to play the final game.
Shelby Tymkin had the lone goal for the Muskies in the battle for bronze while Melissa Payne made 23 saves in a losing cause.
Fort High had opened the tournament Thursday in impressive fashion, jumping out to a 5-0 lead en route to a 9-5 victory over the College Jeanne-Sauve Olympiens (Winnipeg).
The good feelings were short-lived, though, as the Muskies were dumped 5-1 on Friday by the St. Mary’s Academy Flames (Winnipeg).
Jillian Langtry, who had five goals against the Olympiens, netted Fort High’s lone tally against the Flames, with Payne suffering the loss in goal.
Then in the round-robin game against Dryden, Katie Sinclair and Hailey Clendenning staked the Muskies to a 2-0 first-period lead.
But the Eagles scored late in the first and then early in the second to tie the game.
Both teams were held in check the rest of the way through regulation time.
That meant a shootout to determine the winner, with the two teams tied for third in the preliminary standings heading into the game.
It was the Eagles who prevailed by a 3-2 margin in the shootout, with Muskie goalie Dana Cridland valiantly falling short between the pipes.
The Muskies—1-6 in regular-season play—return to NorWOSSA action tomorrow when the St. Thomas Aquinas Saints (Kenora) invade the Ice for Kids Arena for a 7:15 p.m. start.
