Dan Falloon
It was expected that the Muskie girls’ hockey team would be a little wonky after nearly three weeks off.
The hiatus showed as Fort High fell behind 2-1 in the first period before bouncing back to wax the host Sioux Lookout Warriors 9-3 on Friday night.
“It was nice to get the rust out a little bit,” said head coach Mel Langtry.
Jillian Langtry notched the Muskies’ lone goal of the first, with assists going to Alyssa Penner and Shae-lynn Smith.
“We seemed to be getting beat to the puck, our passes weren’t on whatsoever,” noted Langtry.
“But we had only a few practices over the last three weeks, and no games, and we sure turned it around in the second.
“After the first, everything looked good after that,” he said.
Fort High found their legs in the second, netting six goals to grab a 7-3 lead going into the third.
Courtney Easton started the onslaught, assisted by Nicole Beadle, to tie the game at 2-2.
Langtry’s second of the game put the black-and-gold up 3-2, then Jessie Baker tallied soon afterwards.
Langtry then capped her hat trick before Beadle got started on one of her own.
Taylor Dixon, assisted by Jessica Taggart, rounded out the second-period scoring for Fort High.
“We had a really good second period,” enthused Coach Langtry. “We were clicking a lot, we had a lot of nice passing plays and nice goals.”
Beadle then scored twice in the third to finish off the romp.
“We got to run three lines again,” noted Langtry, who has been stuck rotating two centres through three pairs of wingers at other points in the season.
“Everybody got points on each line,” he added.
Courtney Bethune and Danielle Jean each recorded a pair of assists for the black-and-gold.
“We did have two 5-on-3 opportunities and didn’t capitalize on either,” noted Langtry.
“That’s something that we have to try to work on a little bit more in practice,” he stressed.
Friday night’s game marked the return of Alyssa Penner, who missed about 10 weeks with broken wrist.
She started the season at forward, but Langtry has her playing defence this time around.
“That’s new for her,” he remarked. “We’re still without Erika Anderson, so we thought we’d try her at defence and she did a really good job.”
Melissa Payne started in goal for the Muskies but was injured in the second after taking a shot off of the elbow.
Dana Cridland came in for the third.
Langtry said he expects Payne will be ready to face Baudette in an exhibition game tonight at 7:30 p.m. in Emo.
Meanwhile, the Muskie boys played a pair of game in Red Lake on Friday and Saturday, battering the Rams by scores of 6-1 and 10-1 to pad their lead atop of the NorWOSSA ‘AA’ division.
Fort High next hosts the Dryden Eagles tomorrow (Feb. 9) at 7:15 p.m.
