Muskies grab OFSAA hockey berth

The Muskie boys’ hockey team has two weeks to plan and prepare before their trip to the all-Ontarios on March 24-27 in London.
The black-and-gold earned a berth at OFSAA after sweeping the Dryden Eagles in the best-of-three NorWOSSA final last weekend—winning the opener 2-1 here Friday and then taking the second game 5-2 up there Sunday.
“The boys, they really deserve this after the season they had,” said Muskie head coach Shane Bliss, whose team had finished first after the regular season and then swept the Kenora Broncos in the league semi-finals.
David Pierce (Justin Larson) gave the Muskies a 1-0 lead at 5:45 of the first period Friday, which held up until Devin Stansfield scored for the Eagles about five minutes into the third.
The black-and-gold let the crowd sweat until captain Steven Sus scored the game-winner with only 14 seconds to go, assisted by Jordan Bale.
Then in the second game Sunday in Dryden, the Muskies scored three power-play goals en route to the 5-2 victory and NorWOSSA gold.
Mike Niskala (Greg Flewelling) netted the lone goal of the first while Fort High enjoyed a man advantage.
The black-and-gold then got three goals in the second period. Josh Sigurdson (Tyler Miller) notched the first one, with Larson (Kurtis Wepruk/Jacob Esselink) getting the next one at 12:42.
Terry Kellar (unassisted) then scored about three minutes later to make it 4-0.
The Eagles started to inch their way back in the third when Austin Helle (Brian Montgomery) scored just over two minutes in. But the Muskies regained their four-goal advantage at 10:41 when Sus (Pierce/Alex McQuarrie) scored on the power play.
Andrew Skene (Ben Bartlett/Jordan Sampson) scored with only six seconds to go but it was much too little, too late.
“The boys really [bore] down. They didn’t give the first line anything,” said Bliss, who said he had handed the job of shutting down the Eagles’ top line to Flewelling, Wepruk, and Brock Benjamin.
The Muskies will continue to practice until they leave for London. Bliss also hopes to organize some games with local men’s teams for a change of pace.
“Practice can get stale if you do it for too long,” he reasoned.
No other teams have qualified for OFSAA yet.