After outscoring their opponents 13-4 in their three pool games at the John Taylor Piper Classic in Winnipeg, the Muskie boys’ hockey team ran into a hot goalie in Adrian Dowsett of the Oak Park Raiders in the semi-finals.
And the rest, as they say, is history.
Despite firing shot after shot at Dowsett, the Muskies could muster only a power-play goal late in the third-period by David Pierce, assisted by Greg Flewelling and Terry Kellar, as they dropped a 4-1 decision to the Raiders on Saturday morning.
The Raiders went on to edge the Westwood Warriors 3-2 in overtime to claim the tourney title that afternoon.
The black-and-gold had opened play last Thursday by edging the Stonewall Rams 2-1.
Steven Sus netted both Muskie goals, scoring one in the first (assisted by Jake Esselink) and then again on the power play in the third from Kellar.
Jason Green allowed just the one goal between the pipes.
Fort High then jumped out to a 3-0 first-period lead in their second game Friday morning against the Sisler Spartans on goals by Kurtis Wepruk (Josh Sigurdson/Tyler Miller), Kellar (Flewelling/Pierce), and Sus (Justin Larson/Mike Niskala).
Sus (Esselink/Niskala) got his in the second, then Niskala (Sus/Matt Redford) added one in the third to cap a 5-1 victory, with Muskie veteran Matt Gamsby earning the win in goal.
Their final pool game against the Tec Voc Hornets later Friday was another high-scoring affair, with the black-and-gold skating away with a 6-2 win.
Brock Benjamin (Redford) opened the scoring at 12:01 of the first, then it was Pierce (Flewelling/Brian White) and Flewelling (White/Pierce) giving the Muskies a 3-1 lead.
They increased the advantage to 5-2 after two, with Sus (Jordan Bale) and Tyler Miller (Kyle McTavish/Redford) cashing in, before Sus picked up his sixth of the tournament short-handed to round out the scoring.
First-year goalie Cody Wood, in Grade 9, went the distance in net.
Kellar, who spent the past two seasons on the wing before moving back to defence this year, earned a tournament all-star berth as one of two top defencemen in the Classic.
On the down side, the Muskies lost veteran winger Mike Niskala to a knee injury. Although the extent of the damage was unknown at press time, Niskala did not dress for last night’s game in Kenora pending X-ray results.
The Muskies, sporting a 12-2-1 NorWOSSA record heading into last night’s game against the Broncos, next host the Sioux Lookout Warriors on Friday night at Ice for Kids Arena here and then Saturday at 12:30 p.m. at the Emo Arena.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
