Mitch Calvert
NORTH BAY—Yet another heartbreaker.
The Muskies took a 1-0 lead into the third period against the fifth-ranked St. Marcellinus Spirit this morning, but then allowed three unanswered goals to fall 3-1 and drop to 0-2 in Pool ‘C’ at the all-Ontarios in North Bay.
Taylor Jorgenson gave the black-and-gold, ranked 10th, the 1-0 lead with just 31 seconds left in the second, but the Spirit roared back on goals by Mark Creighton, Luke Ramsdale, and Daniel Poutsoungas over the final 15 minutes.
Third-ranked Upper Canada College, who scored a last-minute goal to edge the Muskies 2-1 in their opening game yesterday afternoon, and St. Marcellinus both sit at 2-0 while Central Algoma and Senator O’Connor tied 4-4 this morning to both sit at 0-1-1.
The Muskies will look to get their first win this afternoon against 15th-ranked Central Algoma (the puck drops at 3:15 p.m. CDT).
Then they’ll wrap up pool play tomorrow morning against 18th-ranked Senator O’Connor.
Only the top team teams from each pool advance to the quarter-finals.
Adam Woodland scored with less than 30 seconds to play to give Upper Canada College the narrow win yesterday afternoon.
A tie against a top team would have made a playoff spot that much more within reach for the Muskies, but head coach Shawn Jourdain conceded they need to play better if they expect to compete for the OFSAA crown.
“We were floating too many pucks, and that was the difference,” Jourdain said after yesterday’s opener. “It looked like we had heavy legs, but we’ve been here for two days so there are really no excuses.
“We just didn’t come out with the jump we need to have,” he stressed.
“We just need to find a way to be ready right from the start,” Jourdain added. “Maybe we need to get to bed early, or whatever, I don’t know what it is, but we can play better.”
The Muskies actually opened the scoring in the final minute of the first period when Jamie Kaun’s wrist shot from the point bounced in off Zach McCool’s skate.
But the score easily could have been 4-1 or more in Upper Canada’s favour after one period if not for the spectacular goaltending of Jameson Shortreed.
“Jameson played an unbelievable hockey game,” Jourdain lauded. “We need to be better in front of him.”
JP Jacques had the other goal for UCC late in the second period when he was allowed to skate out in front and snap one high past Shortreed.
