Mitch Calvert
After stringing together three-straight wins at the 23rd-annual John Taylor Piper Classic hockey tournament last weekend in Winnipeg, the Muskies ran into the Oak Park Raiders in the final and fell 4-2 to settle for the silver medal.
It was a parade to the penalty box for much of the game and, as a result, the Muskies couldn’t get any momentum going until late in the third period. But by then, as they say, it was too little, too late.
“We just couldn’t get any flow with our lines until the third period,” Muskie head coach Shawn Jourdain admitted after the game. “Once we did, we took it to them and had our chances, but it was just a little bit too late.
“That team makes you work hard, but we’ve got to stay out of the penalty box,” he stressed. “We’ve got to find ways to win those kind of games against those kind of teams.”
Kenton Gillis put Oak Park up 1-0 midway through the first but Zach McCool got it back on the penalty kill, picking the pocket of the Raiders’ defenceman in his own zone before turning and firing it towards the goal—surprising goalie Kyler Sobiak, who was late getting back into position after playing the puck.
The Muskies played an aggressive game, which started to wear down the Raiders. But it also got them into penalty trouble and Raiders’ captain Dillon Smith made them pay—firing home a slapshot from the point shortly after McCool’s marker to regain the lead.
The Raiders had an extra jump in their step after that, and extended their lead during four-on-four play as David Lafleche was allowed to tap in his own rebound past Muskie goalie Devon Stromness to give Oak Park a two-goal cushion heading into the final 20 minutes.
The black-and-gold did not roll over and die, though, as they started to finally get some sustained pressure and it eventually paid dividends as Josh Scott’s point shot got past a screened Sobiak midway through the third.
The momentum was on the Muskies’ side after that and they pressed hard for the tie. But after Mike Jourdain was stopped point blank on a hard slapper from the slot created by a big hit from
Donovan Cousineau behind the net, the puck turned the other way—leading to a goal by Kevin Stambrook to ice the 4-2 win and the gold medal.
The Raiders also beat the Muskies in the final of a tournament in Brandon, Man. back in December, that time by a 5-3 score.
The Muskies had advanced to the final with a 4-1 win over the St. John’s Ravenscourt Eagles on Saturday morning.
Fort High opened the scoring in the first when hard forechecking by Robbie Rae led to a turnover. Brett McMahon then spotted David Chambers charging towards the net, who one-timed it home.
That score held up through two periods, but the game was far from boring as both teams exchanged a ton of hard but clean checks.
The black-and-gold broke the goal-less stretch with a much-needed insurance marker by defenceman Jamie Kaun early in the third. Kaun picked off an errant Eagles’ pass at his own blueline and started an odd-man rush the other way, eventually keeping it himself and snapping a hard wrister off the post and in past goalie Dylan Floyde’s outstretched glove.
“He [Kaun] probably jumps in better than any defenceman we have, and he’s come a long way and been a really solid defenceman for us all year,” Jourdain enthused.
That sigh of relief was short-lived, however, as David Bigelow scored the Eagles’ first goal just seconds later to narrow the gap to one again.
But the Muskies didn’t let the momentum stay in the Eagles’ favour for long as Mike Jourdain finished off a passing play between Cody McCool and Cousineau, snapping a low shot on the blocker side off a breakaway to make it 3-1.
Wepruk then found Zach McCool with a nice cross-ice feed shortly afterwards to round out the scoring.
“We played well, worked hard, and deserved the 4-1 win for sure,” Jourdain said. “It was a fun game to coach. They were a good team and we had to work hard to beat them.”
Jamison Shortreed came up big with several key saves. But after stopping a partial breakaway in the third, Shortreed was run into by the Eagles’ forward and subsequently got into a scuffle in the crease.
When the dust settled, Shortreed was ejected from the game and assessed a five-minute major penalty, including a suspension for the final that night against Oak Park.
He’ll miss one more NorWOSSA game (he was suspended for last night’s tilt in Dryden) before he can return to action. However, the Muskies have shown plenty of confidence in both Shortreed and Stromness between the pipes—and that’s obviously a nice luxury to have.
“We need that back there; it gives us confidence and we can go from there,” Jourdain noted.
The Muskies killed off the five-minute major with little pressure from the Eagles, with Jourdain saying the penalty kill has been a bright spot for the Muskies all season long.
“We’re really good at taking that second pass away, and then we turn it over and don’t really let them get a chance to come into our zone and set up,” he explained. “It’s what we’ve worked on [in practice] and it’s turned out well.”
After opening the tournament with a 5-4 overtime victory against Selkirk on Thursday night, the Muskies then qualified for the championship bracket with a 4-1 win over Springfield Collegiate on Friday morning.
Wepruk had a natural hat trick in that one, with Matt DePiero netting the other goal.
In related news, the Dryden Eagles edged the Sturgeon Heights Huskies 4-3 in a shootout to win the ‘B’ final. The Kenora Broncos, meanwhile, advanced all the way to the semi-finals before being ousted by Oak Park 8-0.
As well, the Muskies had a welcome addition back in the lineup last night in Dryden with third-year forward Taylor Jorgenson returning to the fold.
“I think he is going to help us with our scoring,” Jourdain said. “We need a second unit that can score consistently, and that’s why we moved Donovan between Mike and Brett this weekend.
“One line was scoring all weekend and we were trying to find a second unit,” he stressed.
