Managing just 13 shots–including none in the second period–in a 3-0 loss to the International Falls Broncos across the river last Friday night, it would be easy to say the Muskie offence took an early Christmas vacation.
On the bright side, defensively the Muskies killed off a pair of minor penalties in that period–and didn’t allow a goal despite being outshot 12-zip.
In fact, none of the Bronco shots were exactly dangerous. Still, it beats having no chances at all.
“It was a bit of both,” Muskie head coach Glen Edwards replied when asked if it was a case of the Falls being that good or the Muskies that bad.
“The Falls played very, very well. They played the body well and they checked well,” he noted. “And our senior forwards did not play that well.
While the Broncos led 1-0 after two on a goal by Travis Bernard, who intercepted a poor clearing attempt and drilled a shot past goalie Blake Carlson, it was the Muskies who had the bulk of the scoring chances in the first period.
David Lloyd was stopped on a breakaway by Bronco goalie Jaymie Fisher just five minutes into the game, then Ross Anderson found himself in all alone but his shot never found its mark.
After that, Tom Rose had another good scoring chance only to be foiled by Fisher’s glove hand.
“One of the big differences between this [game] and the Falls game [in Fort Frances] is that we scored on our chances early,” said Edwards. “That was a major factor.”
At the other end of the ice, Carlson made several saves to keep the Muskies in the game, including an acrobatic stop on Mitch Lavern’s breakaway late in the first.
The Broncos finally made it 2-0 at 6:51 of the third when co-captain Brady Foughner picked up a loose puck along the boards and fired a slapshot past Carlson on his blocker side.
Then Chad Baldwin iced the victory with a short-handed marker on a breakaway, beating Carlson with a deke to the stick side.
“It was a hard-fought game,” Edwards noted. “The second period, they took it to us and we had to kill the penalties.
“I think we did very well in the penalty kills and we had to use some of our better players,” he added. “The penalties put us back.”
Edwards also admitted the game is an indication that maybe the Muskies aren’t quite as good as their record suggests.
“The two recent losses [against the Falls and Baudette here] have shown a major problem with our game and our seniors have to up their game to a higher level,” he stressed.
“They are playing at last year’s level and that’s okay against weaker teams,” he noted.
The best evidence of that was the Muskies’ insistence on skating across the neutral zone and trying to stickhandle around the Bronco defenders.
While that may work against weaker teams like Sioux Lookout and Red Lake, the Broncos made the Muskies pay with several bone-crunching hits between the bluelines.
“The Falls had four or five good open ice hits, where we tried to make little moves, but we should be using our speed to go outside,” Edwards reasoned.
And the Muskies ultimately paid a big price. Jeff Savage suffered a broken hand against the Broncos while Tom Rose suffered a possible broken nose and Chris Kellar hurt his shoulder.
With Jesse Rodrigues still out with broken bones in his hand, the Muskies are down to three lines for the next little while.
“We’re decimated up front,” Edwards admitted.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
