by Gordon Anderson
The number two-ranked team in the province made short work of the 11th ranked Muskies.
The Denis Morris Redmen dominated physically and possessed enough slick playmakers to dispose of Fort Frances 6-1 in Group B action at the OFSAA AAA/AAAA hockey championship in St. Catharines on Tuesday afternoon.
The Redmen were far superior in all aspects of the game. They were much stronger, possessed a better skating game and looked more composed than the Muskies during the contest.
It didn’t help that Fort Frances displayed the obvious signs of a nervous hockey club. They were skittish with the puck and made poor decisions when they had it.
“We have a lot of young guys on this team, so we were pretty nervous,” goalie Wes Brown said.
Coach Shawn Jourdain agreed.
“I think we were nervous,” he said. “We ran around quite a bit and played undisciplined, which isn’t our game.”
The Redmen opened the scoring 1:50 into the first period when Taylor O’Brien deposited a rebound behind Brown.
Joshua Sizek doubled the lead to 2-0 with 4:13 left in the first period when a he took a pass from behind the net and put Brown on the deck before going around him and backhanding the puck into the open net.
Brown was the story of the first period for the Muskies as he made a number of top shelf saves, including a nice anticipation stop on O’Brien during a Denis Morris two-on-one with over 10 minutes left in the second.
“Wes played a good game,” Jourdain said. “There were no goals that he should have had.”
But Brown couldn’t hold on forever.
Curan Whincop made it 3-0 for Denis Morris with a power-play goal at 9:24 of the second period.
Randy Gazzola blasted a shot from the right point that Brown couldn’t corral. Whincop glided in and picked up the rebound before chipping the puck over his left shoulder.
The Redmen upped the lead to 4-0 with 5:46 left in the second period on a two-on-one break.
Denis Morris goalie Justin Nichols noticed the Muskies making a bad line change and he flipped the puck to Joseph D’Eramo at the Fort Frances blue-line. He skated down the right side and slid the puck between the legs of Brown.
The Muskies had four man advantage chances in the second period, including a 34 second five-on-three but could only muster two shots.
Fort Frances had its best chance of the game with 7:54 remaining in the third period when David Chambers found himself alone in the slot but he blasted the puck into the stomach of Nichols.
Goals by Christopher Maniccia and Gazzola gave the Redmen a comfortable 6-0 lead.
Chris Cousineau spoiled the shutout bid for Nichols with one minute remaining on a shot from the point through traffic.
