Muskies hitting ice surface

As reported in Friday’s Daily Bulletin, Fort High will ice a Muskie boys’ hockey team this season.
The black-and-gold will kick off action Nov. 17-18 at a tournament in Warroad before opening the NorWOSSA campaign against Kenora here Nov. 21.
“I am [excited],” assistant coach Ken Christiansen enthused Monday morning. “This will be good for the kids, too.”
Head coach Glen Edwards said having a high school hockey team makes his winter go a lot faster.
Edwards noted it took so long to decide if there was going to be a boys’ hockey team because there was some confusion about what was happening with other high school teams around the region.
But now that Kenora, Dryden, Sioux Lookout, and Red Lake also are going to have teams this season, the original schedule will remain the same.
The Muskies also will play several exhibition games against American teams such as International Falls, Baudette, and Chisholm.
Christiansen noted the team has pretty well been picked and the first practice is slated Oct. 30.
“At the [tryouts], we kept some extra kids [for some positions],” he said. “So we are pretty well set as far as kids go.”
He noted that because of the delay in getting the Muskie team together, they did lose a few players to some junior teams.
“The goaltenders are back, so we will be strong there, and most of our forwards are back so we will be okay there,” Christiansen said. “Jeff Savage is gone and we will miss that but I think we will be okay.”
But he also noted the coaches and players won’t really know they stack up this season until after the Warroad tournament.
“Until we play other teams, we won’t know how we stack up against them,” he reasoned.
The Muskies are scheduled to face the Falls Broncos here Nov. 28 and over there Dec. 15. They also are slated to compete in the Winnipeg Piper Classic tournament on Jan. 25-28.
The NorWOSSA semi-finals are slated for Feb. 23, 25, and 27, with the NorWOSSA final set for March 2, 4, and 6.