Joey Payeur
All things considered, Scott Clendenning was in pretty good spirits.
That was despite his Muskie girls’ hockey team falling 6-2 to the visiting Warroad Warriors last night at the ’52 Canadians Arena in the second half of a home-and-home exhibition series.
Warroad took the opener 8-1 at home back on Nov. 14.
“Overall, I think the girls played hard every shift,” Clendenning said about his team’s effort against Warroad, the second-place team in the Section 7 standings with a 5-2-1 record.
The Warriors are 12-7-3 overall this season.
“Regardless of the score, we got after them hard,” Clendenning noted.
“But you’ve got to give it to their goalie [Dani Knott],” he added.
“We had our opportunities and couldn’t capitalize.”
The Muskies still were in the game early in the third after Jenna Clendenning’s goal on a two-man advantage pulled Fort High to within 4-2.
But the Warriors’ power play, which struck three times during the game, iced the victory with tallies by Madison Oelkers and Hannah Christian.
Francesca Huerd added a natural hat trick for Warroad while Christian had the other goal.
Jessica Coran celebrated her 18th birthday with a first-period marker for the Muskies.
Knott earned the win while Kate Parsons took the loss for the Muskies, who now have an extended break due to final exams next week.
Fort High returns to action with a two-game set against the visiting St. Thomas Aquinas Saints on Feb. 2 at 7:45 p.m. and again Feb. 3 at 12:30 p.m. at the Ice For Kids Arena.
Earlier yesterday, Warriors’ junior varsity squad posted a 6-2 victory over the Fort Frances Bantam ‘AA’ Leafs.
The Warriors led only 2-1 after the first but scored three times in the second to put the game out of reach.
Valerie Jacques paced Warroad with a pair of goals while Danika Huerd, Lindsay Olimb, Makailie Herr, and Shalese Snowden (empty-netter) added singles.
Kelsey Langtry and Maighyn DeGagne scored for the Leafs.
Megan Thomas went the distance between the pipes for the Warriors.
Ziggy Skead got the start for Fort Frances and gave up four goals.
She was replaced halfway through the game by Sydney Beck, who allowed the final two tallies.
