The great thing about a new season is everybody starts out equal. How long it stays that way will be up to the Muskie girls’ hockey team.
The Muskies’ 0-12 NorWOSSA regular-season record—and subsequent 2-0 sweep at the hands of the Dryden Eagles in the league semi-finals—are the stuff of history.
It’s now the job of head coach Jim McMahon and his staff of Al Barr and new assistant Bob George, along with new trainer and female coach Zoe Boileau, to pick the positives out of last season’s plentiful frustrations to get his charges headed in a more successful direction.
“I’m very excited and encouraged by what we’ve seen out of the girls at practice,” said McMahon, who unfortunately has been unable to have his entire team out for a practice due to other athletic commitments of some of his players.
In fact, he probably won’t see his full team together until next Tuesday’s season-opener here against the defending NorWOSSA champion Kenora Broncos.
“I look forward to getting this team on the ice,” McMahon said.
The Muskies only will have 11 veterans on their 16-player roster back from last year’s team due to graduations (Tara Lloyd, Brooke Shabatura, and Diana Redford) and eligible players opting not to return for various reasons (Heather Dutton, Becky Witherspoon, and Joelle Madill).
The forward lines are still under construction, with veterans like Hannah Firth, Kristin Roehrig, Krystine Marchuk, Stephanie Strachan, Sarah O’Sullivan, and Katie McTavish to be counted on heavily to supply goals for an offence that sputtered all last season.
“I think our returning forwards are only going to be stronger,” said McMahon. “We got a third line made up of pure rookies right now, but I’m not sure we want to use that combination when we go up against the likes of Kenora.
“That’s like throwing lambs to the wolves.”
On defence, McMahon will go with a five-player rotation involving veterans Mackenzie Caul, Danielle O’Sullivan, and Ashley Whalen along with rookie Carly Holt and Kerry Hyatt, who returns to the fold after a year away from the team.
McMahon is especially glad to have Whalen back after the blueliner missed almost the entire season last year with post-concussion syndrome.
“I know with Ashley with every shift she goes out there, she’s going to give me everything she has,” praised McMahon. “It’s comforting to know you’re going to get that every time out, that you just have to tap her on the shoulder and know she’ll do the best job she can.
“That’s really the case for this whole group of girls.”
Between the pipes, the tandem of Kim Pacarenuk and Megan Bob is back, with McMahon planning to stick to a rotation system for the two netminders for the time being.
“They both went to goalie camps during the summer, and the reports I got back on them were excellent,” McMahon said about his goalies, who were overwhelmed most nights last year because of the barrage of opposition shots allowed by the porous team defence in front of them.
“They’re so close in talent. I can put either of them in net and they’ll do the job for us,” he remarked.
The Muskies did end the season on a high note—playing a spirited Game 2 in the semi-final against Dryden after being blown out by the Eagles in Game 1—and hope to continue that style of play when the puck drops Tuesday.
“As a coaching staff, we can only hope to feed off the playoff momentum we built,” said McMahon. “It’s going to take a couple of weeks to build some chemistry because of the people we’ve had missing.
“We’re going to need commitment from the goaltender out to have success.
“Kenora’s a tough game to start with because they’re so far ahead of us when it comes to puck movement,” McMahon noted. “But it’s going to be kind of neat to see what the rookies on this team are going to have to say about it.”
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
