Lucas Punkari
A year ago, it was a point shot by Brett McMahon in overtime that gave the Muskie boys’ hockey team a dramatic 2-1 win over the International Falls Broncos at the Ice For Kids Arena here.
This year, however, it was the black-and-gold who were left with the bitter taste of defeat in their mouths in their annual exhibition battle after the visiting Broncos came away with a 6-5 overtime triumph Friday night.
“We played okay tonight, but we just made a couple of turnovers and giveaways that let them back into the game,” Muskie head coach Shawn Jourdan said afterwards.
“The boys don’t often play with the type of crowd like you saw here tonight [Friday], and I think they ended up being a little bit over-keyed out there and it showed sometimes in some undisciplined penalties that both teams made.
“Overall, though, it’s always a fun game to be a part of, and I can certainly say that I had a lot of fun coaching here tonight,” Jourdain added.
Over in the Broncos’ dressing room, the mood was one of pure euphoria.
“Any time you can get a win over a good team like Fort Frances, you have to take it,” stressed Broncos’ coach Bruce Elson.
“For the guys to come back here after what happened last year and be able to win in overtime is a great feeling.
“But we want them to learn from it and take it into the playoffs, which starts for us on Thursday in the Falls against Greenway,” he stressed.
As the clock wound down in regulation time, and the Muskies holding a narrow 5-4 lead after a goal by Nick Jourdain, the Broncos were having trouble getting a shot on net as it appeared the home side would come away with another win.
But with just 2.7 seconds left, Broncos’ captain Christian Kittelson banged home a shot from the slot past Muskie goalie Scott Parsons to tie the game and set the stage for overtime.
In the extra frame, the Muskies held most of the momentum until Robbie Rea went to the penalty box with nearly two-and-a-half minutes to go to serve an unsportsmanlike
conduct penalty.
It took only 30 seconds into the power play for the Broncos to capitalize as Mason Meyer slid a shot past Parsons for his second goal of the night.
“Lucas [DeBenedet] got the puck behind the net and he was working hard behind there, and that left me open a little bit out in front and I was able to bang it home,” recalled Meyer.
“It did go off of their goalie’s shoulder and rolled softly into the net, so it wasn’t really the greatest goal, but I’ll take it,” he smiled.
The late-game dramatics by the Broncos actually was the second comeback they made Friday night. They scored a pair of shorthanded goals just 28 seconds apart during the final minute of the second period, which put the score at 4-3 heading into the third.
“That was definitely the turning point in the game for us,” Meyer said.
“With about a minute to go there in the second period, we were not feeling very positive at all out there,” he admitted.
“But as soon as we got those two goals, we knew that we could come back.
“Generally, when we have gone down by a goal this year, we have struggled to come back and the guys have lost confidence,” Elson noted.
“But tonight, the guys were able to come back a couple of times there and that tells the story of how this game went.”
DeBenedet also netted a pair of goals for the Broncos, with Brett Musich notching the other one.
Muskie captain Nick Kaun led the way with a pair of goals, with Rea and Chris Bobczynski also finding the back of the net.
At the other end of the rink, the black-and-gold welcomed Parsons back into the fold, which marked his first start in nearly a month after being sidelined with mononucleosis.
“We actually found out on Friday morning that he would be able to play for us,” Shawn Jourdain noted.
“He only had one practice in there, and he’s lost some weight, but we threw him right into the fire and I thought he played well,” he added.
The Muskies, who finished in first place during the regular season, now will prepare for their best-of-three semi-final series to get underway this Friday at 7:15 p.m. at the Ice For Kids Arena against either the Sioux Lookout Warriors or the Dryden Eagles.
“The big thing for us in practice this week will be just staying in game shape and keeping the game simple,” Jourdain said.
“We’re into the crunch time here and one of the things that we can’t do right now is be taking bad penalties, so that will be something that we will be talking about to the guys,” he stressed.
The second game of the series will go Sunday in either Sioux Lookout or Dryden, with Game 3, if necessary, back here next Tuesday (Feb. 28).
