Staff
It wasn’t a slow start that did in the Muskie boys’ hockey team Tuesday night in Dryden.
Rather, it was an Eagles’ uprising at the end that handed Fort High a 5-4 loss in overtime.
The loss was the Muskies’ first in NorWOSSA play, dropping them to 7-1 on the campaign.
Dryden, meanwhile, evened their record at 4-4, jumping into a second-place tie with the Kenora Broncos.
The Muskies battled back after falling behind 2-0 in the first period, but an already-depleted bench that was further shortened by penalties and equipment trouble proved to be too much to overcome.
With Jamie and Nick Kaun already missing the game, the Muskies lost Chris Cousineau to a checking-from-behind penalty on his first shift and later Colton Spicer to a broken skate.
Following a string of first-period infractions by the black-and-gold, Dryden took a 2-0 lead into the second period.
But Davis Smith spearheaded the Muskie charge, notching a hat trick to help Fort High surge into the lead.
Jeff Cridland later scored the other goal as the black-and-gold took a 4-3 lead into the final minute.
But Dryden’s Matt Bartlett notched the equalizer with 47 seconds to go, then Ethan Egli beat Fort High goalie Wes Brown 2:37 into overtime to complete a hat trick of his own.
“We got up a couple times and they just kept fighting back,” sighed Muskie coach Shawn Jourdain.
“We usually roll four lines and six [defence], and we usually take it to teams in the third, but we couldn’t do that with the three lines and the four ‘D,’” he noted.
The Muskies will bext host the Red Lake Rams this Saturday at 12:30 p.m. at the ’52 Canadians Arena.
