Dan Falloon
You wouldn’t like them when they’re angry.
After suffering a shocking loss at the hands of the St. Thomas Aquinas Saints in Kenora on Friday night, the Muskie girls’ hockey team rebounded against the host Red Lake Rams on Sunday afternoon.
The Muskies went into Kenora riding high after an hard-fought 4-0 blanking of the Babbitt-Embarrass Knights here last Tuesday. But the black-and-gold fell flat, losing 5-0 to the Saints.
The hosts netted in all five of their markers before the midway point of the second period.
“I think we took them a little bit too lightly,” sighed Muskie coach Mel Langtry. “At any time, any of these teams can win games, so you can’t take them too lightly and be too overconfident when you go down there.
“That seems to be what we did and they took it to us,” he added.
The Muskies picked their play up as the game went along. Langtry noted the Saints held a 16-8 shots advantage after the first period, but the shots were about even by the end.
“After [the first period], we took it to them but to no avail,” he recalled. “Their goalie played really well.
“We had a lot of chances.”
Ultimately, though, it was the early defensive lapses that ended up burying Fort High in too deep of a hole.
“We had quite a few breakdowns in our end that the goals just shouldn’t have been in,” Langtry said. “There were a couple from behind our net and long shots that we’ve got to start stopping and not allowing.”
Langtry noted Shae-lynn Smith was absent from the game, which threw the forward combinations out of whack.
“She’s a big part of our offence—and defence, actually,” he stressed. “We had to run two centres, and we don’t seem to work as efficient when we’re not three complete lines.”
Faced with a Sunday matinee against Red Lake in Ear Falls, the Muskies bounced back from
Friday’s poor showing.
Langtry pointed out Red Lake was looking to keep up the momentum after scoring an upset over Dryden, but it wasn’t to be.
“We went in there and played a really good game,” he enthused.
Carlee Bosma opened the scoring just two minutes into the game, with Jillian Langtry making it 2-0 three minutes later.
Courtney Bethune increased the lead to three with eight minutes left in the first.
Taylor Dixon netted one more into the Red Lake net at the 13-minute mark of the second before the Rams got on the board with just 27 seconds to go in the period to cut the deficit to 4-1.
With some new life, Red Lake notched a pair quick ones early in the third to crawl within 4-3, but Ericka Tymkin and Bosma scored late to seal the 6-3 victory.
Smith pitched in a pair of assists Sunday while Langtry, Tymkin, Dixon, and Bosma also recorded multi-point efforts.
Fort High hits the exam break with a 4-4 record in NorWOSSA play, leaving them trailing both the Kenora Broncos and Dryden in the ‘AA’ standings.
All three ‘AA’ teams make the playoffs while the top ‘A’ team is called up to even out the draw.
The black-and-gold are now off until Feb. 5, when they visit Sioux Lookout.
Their next home action is Feb. 8 when Baudette visits the Emo Arena for an exhibition game.
