It could have been a case of nerves, or perhaps a lack of experience, but the inaugural Muskie girls’ hockey team came out on the short end of a 2-0 score against the visiting Kenora Broncos in their home-opener last Friday night.
Kenora scored early in the game on a penalty shot, then added an insurance marker later while keeping the black-and-gold off the scoreboard.
“They had a good first showing,” Muskie co-coach Mark Lafleur said. “They played a really good third period and if they can play two more periods like the third, then they will be a force to be reckoned with
“They showed in the third period what they could do,” he noted.
“The girls want to play hard,” Lafleur stressed, adding it got a little scrappy “but that is hockey.”
Amy Marchuk, who helped spearhead the effort to organize a Muskie girls’ hockey team and was among the many spectators on hand for the game, said their first effort wasn’t too bad.
“I could not have been more excited than if I would have been on the ice with them,” she enthused.
“They played well and it is coming,” echoed Lafleur. “For some of the girls, that was their first organized, with a referee, hockey game.”
Lafleur added most of the girls were extremely nervous before the game and half of them couldn’t stomach their suppers. But he also admitted to being nervous–and said the large crowd on hand no doubt added to the butterflies.
In fact, Lafleur noted when the girls were sitting on the bench, he heard a few of them say, ‘Oh my God, look at all the people.’”
“They were really nervous, which caused a slow start, but it was a lot of fun–it was really something to see,” he remarked.
“The community support was really impressive,” he continued. “They even had a pep rally for them at the high school–they got the royal treatment.”
Lafleur said he hopes to see just as many, if not more, fans out at their game here this Friday night against the International Falls Broncos at 8 p.m.
Then the black-and-gold will head to Kenora on Saturday for a re-match with the Beaver Brae Broncos.