Mitch Calvert
The Muskie boys’ hockey team woke up Sunday morning feeling a lot better about themselves.
After dropping three-straight exhibition games to the Shattuck-St. Mary’s Sabres here Nov. 7-9, the squad opened NorWOSSA play with a tough 5-2 loss to the host Dryden Eagles last Wednesday.
But they redeemed themselves with a tournament victory over the weekend in Morden, Man.
“We did a lot better,” enthused new Muskie head coach Shawn Jourdain. “Our goaltending was awesome this weekend and we moved the puck well in all three games.”
The Muskies opened the tournament with a 3-2 shootout victory over Pembina, then pounded Red Lake 8-2 in their second game.
They wrapped up the tournament with a sound 2-0 win over Winkler in Saturday’s final, getting goals from David Chambers and Kyle Herr while Jamison Shortreed earned the shutout.
“We played some good teams,” noted Jourdain. “Got a chance to look at [NorWOSSA opponent] Red Lake and we just buzz-sawed them.
“We took it to them all game and beat them with our speed,” he added.
Jourdain said the sound effort in all three games was a big step up from the disappointing loss to Dryden—and may be a sign their young team is coming together.
“Every line was on the scoresheet at some point,” Jourdain remarked.
“Our power play got a lot better as the weekend went along, and our penalty kill was very good all weekend,” he continued.
“We had the penalty kill going a lot in the final game. [Winkler] had three 5-on-3s and we killed all those off, so it was big for us.”
The black-and-gold resumed NorWOSSA action last night in Kenora (the outcome was not known prior to press time), then head to Red Lake this Friday and Saturday for back-to-back games against the Rams, who surely will be looking to avenge the Muskies’ 8-2 drubbing in Morden.
“We just have to continue to get back to basics and work on those things every day in practice,” Jourdain stressed. “The kids did really well and came to play this weekend, and that was sure nice to see.
“We were able to get everyone playing and they all showed up for it.”
