Muskie girls survive street fight

In the beginning, it was only exhibition. By the end, it was exhilaration.
It meant nothing in the standings, but a 3-1 win by the Muskie girls’ hockey team over the International Falls Broncos here Friday night might mean a new start for a black-and-gold team that’s taken its share of lumps this season.
And in a game that at times more resembled hand-to-hand combat than hockey, it was the Muskies’ on-ice generals who helped fortify the front line.
“Our lettered players [captain Tara Lloyd and assistants Brooke Shabatura, Kristin Roehrig, and Stephanie Strachan] came out strong, and that helps make the other players come out strong, too,” said Muskie trainer and assistant coach Trista Barker.
Shabatura had a goal and an assist while Roehrig added an empty-net insurance marker with 20 seconds left to ice the victory for the Muskies, who are 0-9 in NorWOSSA play this season but 5-2 in exhibition action.
The game-winner came at 9:45 of the third on a Muskie power play when Shabatura delivered a perfect blueline-to-blueline pass to Hannah Firth, who broke free for a clear-cut breakaway before rifling a wrist shot high to the glove side of goalie Lacey Mark.
Firth celebrated her goal by launching into a spontaneous impression of a certain cartoon web-slinger that continued all the way to the Muskie bench.
“That’s our ‘Spiderman,’” chuckled Barker. “Hannah deserved it.”
Firth’s moment of glory was upon her before she could even comprehend what was taking place.
“I don’t even know what happened, but all I know is I had the puck,” recalled Firth. “I was aiming high because if I shot low, I figured [Mark] would probably stop it.”
For Shabatura’s part, the Muskie blueliner proved it’s not always bad to have second thoughts.
“I was just going to clear the puck down the ice,” she remarked. “I’m glad I took the time to take a look. Getting someone in behind the defence on the power play is a play we’ve been working on in practice lately.”
Shabatura opened the scoring at 12:56 of the first, also on the power play, taking a Joelle Madill pass at the Broncos’ blueline, stickhandling around one defender, and unleashing a blast that squirted through Mark’s pads.
The game turned nasty in the second period following a Broncos’ time-out at the 6:28 mark after they had failed to capitalize on a five-minute power play when Lloyd was handed a major and a game misconduct at the 37-second mark on a questionable roughing call.
The next two-and-a-half minutes of action featured four-straight penalties against the Falls, starting with a holding-the-stick infraction against Rachel Dougherty and becoming increasingly more violent.
The penalties culminated with Brittany Corrin levelling Strachan with an elbow to the head at the blueline that garnered the Bronco player a major and a game misconduct—and left Strachan motionless on the ice for several minutes with a concussion.
“Both teams had their ridiculous moments—it’s kind of disappointing that it had to get to that point,” said Barker, who also watched Muskie goalie Kim Pacarenuk get plowed into several times by hard-charging Bronco forwards.
“Kim got pounded by their players, but didn’t lose her cool at all.”
Pacarenuk, who was outstanding in the Muskie goal, pulled no punches when it came to discussing the magnitude of the win.
“It was the best game we played all season, and our biggest win of the year,” said the goalie, who made a sparkling breakaway save against Kelsie Musich in the second period, before preserving the Muskie lead with a point-blank stop on Brittany Bolstad late in the third.
“I worked totally on instinct tonight. It usually works better for me that night,” she noted. “But the team did awesome in front of me. We finally gelled as a group.”
Shabatura, who turned in a steady defensive outing to accompany her offensive output, agreed.
“We started playing as a team, like we’ve been wanting to do since the beginning of the season,” she said. “We just told ourselves during the second period, when the rough stuff was happening, that we couldn’t lose our cool, or we might lose the game.”
The Muskies will try and build on their exhibition record when they travel to Roseau for a Jan. 28 game, before returning to NorWOSSA action Jan. 31 in Kenora against the Broncos.
Their next home game is slated Feb. 4 against those same Broncos.