Joey Payeur
The safe bet is that a certain goalie is taking the day off school today to get some much-deserved rest after an evening which probably had her seeing flying pucks in her nightmares.
The Muskie girls’ hockey team racked up an astounding 100 shots—while allowing only four—in a 7-0 shutout of the host Sioux Lookout Warriors in NorWOSSA action last night.
Fort High (2-0) seemingly fired at will from the opening face-off and only the unbelievable 93-save performance by Grade 9 Warriors’ goalie Kyla Kulchyski kept the game from being a complete debacle.
“Their count was 105 shots,” noted Muskie head coach Scott Clendenning.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” he added. “We put everything at [Kulchyski].
“I’ve got to give her credit.”
Jessica Coran opened the scoring just 31 seconds into the game on a set-up from Alexis Perreault and Amy Penner.
Shilo Beck made it 2-0 at 10:29 of the first before the Muskies went up 3-0 on Hailey Clendenning’s goal at 14:46.
After Kaily Greengrass made it 4-0 at 1:34 of the second, reserve roster call-up Rylee Redford netted her first of the season at 12:49 in her NorWOSSA regular-season debut.
“Rylee was in the right spot at the right time and banged one home,” noted her coach.
“Good for her.”
Coran finished the middle stanza with her second of the night for a 6-0 lead and the Muskies holding a 70-3 lead on the shot clock.
Fort High then poured it on in the third—outshooting the Warriors by a whopping 30-1 margin.
But only Penner was able to solve Kulchyski to round out the scoring.
“The whole team stepped up and had multiple opportunities to score,” lauded Clendenning.
“Even the defence was
involved in the game on the offensive end.”
Muskie goalie Kate Parsons barely broke a sweat in recording what likely will go down as the easiest shutout of her career.
The frightening part for the rest of the league is that Clendenning still didn’t believe he witnessed a complete-game effort from his troops.
“We still have to learn to play three periods of hockey,” he stressed. “We come into games like this and play down to the level of our opponent a bit.
“We have to keep working hard on doing things like setting up one-timers in their zone,” he added.
In related news, the Muskie girls will hold their annual Christmas tea and bake sale tomorrow (Nov. 30) from noon-2 p.m. in the Fort High cafeteria.
On Monday, they to Baudette for an exhibition game against the Lake of the Woods Bears.
Then on Tuesday, the black-and-gold will lock horns with the International Falls Broncos in their annual border battle at 7:15 p.m. at the Ice For Kids Arena.
That game also will feature the squad’s annual “Teddy Bear Toss,” in which fans are encouraged to bring along a stuffed toy to throw on the ice after the first Muskie goal.
The toys then will be collected and distributed by the local Salvation Army in time for Christmas.
