Joey Payeur
The captain was crestfallen. The goaltender was livid.
The coach was counting the moments until their next confrontation.
There was no denying the intensity of emotion permeating the hallway outside the dressing room of the Muskie girls’ hockey team after a hard-fought 3-2 loss to the Dryden Eagles in the NorWOSSA regular-season finale for both teams here Thursday night.
“Everyone’s down in the room right now,” said Muskie captain Amy Penner, who couldn’t hide the disappointment of having the Eagles win all three league games this season.
“Mainly because it’s our last league game and it sucks to have to lose to Dryden, especially at home.”
The first-place Eagles (12-0) capped an undefeated regular season with the win, with Fort High finishing in second place (9-3).
Having to watch a joyous post-game celebration by another team on their own ice didn’t sit well with Muskie goalie Calie Clendenning.
“They took it over the top,” she fumed.
“We had a very strong game and we’ll have a very strong playoff.”
With the Muskies leading 2-1 after the first, Eagles’ captain Liv Carter got her second goal of the game when she banged home the puck that Clendenning was certain she had covered up after stopping Emmy Arsenault’s original shot.
“I didn’t communicate very well with the defence,” Clendenning conceded.
“But I thought I had it. I was sitting on it.
“The referee has to blow it down quicker than that,” she added.
The go-ahead goal near the midway point of the third period was even more contentious.
A shot from the left of the net hit a Muskie defender in front and bounced into the air.
As it came down, Rachel Getson appeared to thrust her leg out and redirect it into the net.
“Both those goals were 100 percent questionable,” stewed Clendenning.
“It’s not soccer. It’s hockey.”
Muskie head coach Scott Clendenning was glowering in frustration after the game, but directed his comments towards looking ahead.
“It’s going to be a good playoff run,” he vowed.
“The girls showed up tonight and they’ve got Dryden thinking now,” he added.
“If they [Dryden] think they’re going to walk all over people . . . we can’t wait for the final.
“It’s a whole new season and we’re going to win when it counts.”
The Muskies opened the scoring early in the first when Rachel Jean sailed a point shot over the shoulder of Eagles’ goalie Jacquie Grandmont.
Elizabeth Carter was hauled down by Kaily Greengrass on a short-handed breakaway about three minutes later to earn a penalty shot.
But Clendenning was equal to the task—sticking with Carter’s deke to the end and getting her trapper down along the ice to push the puck wide of the net.
“I just followed her and it ended up going my way,” the netminder said modestly.
But Liv Carter hit paydirt the next time the Eagles’ were short-handed. She shook off the check of Sam McKinnon and powered out front before firing a shot glove-side on Clendenning.
Taylor Croswell restored the Muskies’ lead late in the first, putting a second rebound of a McKinnon point shot past Grandmont after Penner was stopped on her chance.
Fort High didn’t do itself any favours with a sputtering power-play that went 0-for-6 in the game.
“We’ve just got to calm it down,” Scott Clendenning about his team’s man-advantage work.
“That’s hockey. But obviously we want to have the power-play going in the playoffs,” he noted.
“It will be all right.”
The first order of business is the best-of-three NorWOSSA semi-final against the third-place St. Thomas Aquinas Saints from Kenora, which started last night at the Ice For Kids Arena (the outcome was unknown as of press time).
Fort High won all three league games against the Saints this season by a combined 15-2 score.
“We just have to play like we usually do and go out hard every game,” Calie Clendenning said about squaring off against the Saints, who will rely on the outstanding goaltending of Gilly Derouard to try and pull off the monumental upset.
“We’ll want to play strong and get ourselves ready for Dryden,” added Scott Clendenning.
As for the captain? She’s already declared open season on Eagles.
“I think [Dryden] knows we’re even with them, if not better,” said Penner.
“We’ve just got to come in with the attitude to do our best,” she noted.
“We’ve just got to keep going and we’ll be fine.”
Game 2 of the semi-final goes Saturday in Kenora, with Game 3 (if necessary) on Sunday at 1:15 p.m. at the ’52 Canadians Arena.
