Mitch Calvert
Shawn Jourdain hardly could have asked for a better home debut as new head coach of the Muskie boys’ hockey team.
Veteran Kyle Herr scored twice, and Jamison Shortreed stopped all the shots he needed to, as the black-and-gold held on for a 3-2 win over the visiting Dryden Eagles on Tuesday night.
The Muskies, who avenged a season-opening 5-2 loss to the Eagles up there back on Nov. 12, improved their NorWOSSA record to a league-best 4-1.
“We weren’t particularly sharp in the first period but we carried the play in the second and third, but ended up hitting four posts,” Jourdain said of the final 40 minutes, which saw the Muskies relentlessly attack the Eagles’ zone.
“We’ve just got to find ways of finishing around the net a bit more, but it was a good effort overall,” he added.
The teams were deadlocked 1-1 after 20 minutes, but Fort High came out hard in the second. Herr broke the tie early in the period when he picked up a rebound off a nice end-to-end rush by Robbie Rae to score his second of the game.
Then just three minutes later, Blake Wepruk finished off a nice passing play from linemates Brendan Cawston and David Chambers, firing a snap shot high past Eagles’ goalie Kim Wildhaber’s outstretched glove.
Kevin Trott drew the Eagles within one on a goal late in the third off a nifty cross-crease pass from Ryan Lobreau, then Cawston took a late penalty to give Dryden a power-play chance to end the game.
But Zach McCool broke free on a shorthanded breakaway early in the penalty kill, forcing an Eagles’ defender to haul him down and all but assure the Muskies the victory at even strength in the final minutes.
“We still have to focus on getting our feet moving right from the drop of the puck in the first period, but we played a lot better the rest of the way,” Jourdain said. “We’ll hopefully get a quicker pace in practice and, hopefully, that will transfer over to the game.”
The Muskies next travel to Spring Lake, Mn. for a four-team tournament beginning tomorrow night, but will be without the services of forward Adam Wensley, who separated a shoulder in the weekend series up in Red Lake.
“He went to hit somebody in open ice and ended up getting hurt,” Jourdain noted. “He’ll be out a couple weeks.
“That’s hockey, I guess, but he seemed to be in good spirits.”
