Muskie girls’ team misses out on medal

The Muskie girls’ hockey team started out strong but then dropped both playoff games to finish fourth overall at the Sturgeon Heights Huskies 2007 Female Invitational Hockey Classic in Winnipeg over the weekend.
The Muskies topped the Sanford Sabres 3-1 on Friday night, then battled the Dryden Eagles to a 4-4 draw Saturday morning.
The black-and-gold then wrapped up round-robin play with a 1-0 shutout over the host Sturgeon Heights Huskies.
That earned the Muskies a semi-final showdown against the St. Mary’s Flames on Sunday morning, who beat them 4-2.
Then they were blanked 3-0 in the consolation final later Sunday by the Kenora Broncos.
“You’d always like to make it to the final, but we ran into St. Mary’s in the semis, which is one of the perennial top teams in Winnipeg,” Muskie head coach Lynn Kellar noted.
“You always like to finish a tournament on a good note . . . you never want to finish with a loss like that.”
Kellar added the crushing shutout loss to Kenora was due to a lack of team effort, and speculated the girls may have come out flat after losing to the Flames earlier in the day.
“Was it a letdown from the St. Mary’s game? I’m not really sure, but not everybody came to play,” Kellar said, adding he was “somewhat” concerned by the team’s inability to bounce back from a tough game.
“We’ll get that corrected here shortly but, yeah, it’s one of those things you don’t like to see.”
Kristen Penner led the Muskie attack with three goals and two assists over the five games. Nina Bird, Taylor Meyers, and Lauren Krukoski each notched two goals and two assists.
Also impressive was the play of goalie Katie Stearns, who was between the pipes for all five games for the black-and-gold with Sara Trendiak out nursing a sore knee.
“Actually, she did extremely well,” Kellar said. “We were quite pleased with that. Actually, we were quite pleased with our goaltending so far this year.”
The Muskies will kick off the NorWOSSA regular season next Tuesday (Nov. 13) against the visiting Dryden Eagles, and Kellar said the team will need to improve their skating, puck movement, and passing through the neutral zone.
But he remained positive, ready to write off the two playoff losses on Sunday as a “learning experience.”
“You have to show up and play every game whether it was a tough loss or not, otherwise you continue to lose. . . it’s one of the growing pains, you know?” Kellar stressed.
“Better to have now than later in the year,” he added.
And despite playing a game each against the Eagles and Broncos—both NorWOSSA rivals—and coming away without a win, this team still has their upside.
“I still like our chances,” said Kellar. “Obviously we have some things to work on but at this time of year . . . we’re quite optimistic.
“As far as league play, I like our team.”