Each year, five NorWOSSA teams start the season with a clean slate. No wins, no losses, no ties.
Throughout the campaign, teams expect to pick up their share of each along the way. But this past season was an exception to the rule.
The Muskies defied the odds by breezing through the regular season with a perfect 16-0 record, outscoring their opponents by a 128-26 margin. No other team came close in either category.
“As far as NorWOSSA is concerned, as soon as we played each team once, we felt we could go undefeated,” Muskie head coach Glen Edwards admitted. “Around Christmas time, it was a strong possibility.”
Then the black-and-gold topped that unbeaten regular season with four-straight playoff wins–sweeping Kenora 10-3 and 5-2 in the semi-finals and then ousting Dryden 9-1 and 6-1 in the final.
Simply put, they were never tested.
Sure, skeptics out there will say NorWOSSA has seen better days–that it’s not exactly the most competitive high school league in the province. Teams like Red Lake and Sioux Lookout hardly compare against Upper Canada College or St. Andrews.
But the black-and-gold are no strangers to the all-Ontarios. And they’ll have a chance to prove those naysayers wrong next Wednesday in Sudbury when they make a second-straight trip–and 20th overall–to the all-Ontarios.
Not many schools can claim that many appearances.
Last year, the Muskies missed advancing to the playoff round at the all-Ontarios in Dryden despite finishing pool play with a 2-1-1 record (they lost out on the goals for and against ratio).
This year, their goal will be much higher.
Edwards, an assistant for 17 years before taking over as the team’s head coach from long-time guru Terry Ogden, feels this team has the making of a championship club.
He felt the same way at their tryout camp back in August. He still fells that way today.
But will they do it?
“I think so. I’ve thought that from day one,” said Edwards, 54. “I think we’ve had a good run. We’re well known down east and we’re always a team to be reckoned with.
“We’ve always been a contender . . . always right there, we’ve never been blown out. The tradition has always carried over,” he added.
Edwards appears to know what he’s talking about.
This past season, the Muskies finished with an overall record of 30-5, including a perfect 25-0 against Canadian squads. But the season did have its downside. Their low point came back at Christmas when they were blitzed in three-straight games by American teams at a tournament in Warroad, Mn.
With a lineup decimated by injuries, the black-and-gold was handed a lesson in humility. But it was a lesson Edwards felt would help them later on in the season–specifically at the all-Ontarios.
In the past two seasons under Edwards, the Muskies have an impeccable 30-2 regular-season record. All told, they are 37-11 in the regular season with Edwards at the helm, winning the past two NorWOSSA titles and losing to Dryden in a third and deciding game of the final in 1998.
You have to go back to the 1989 edition of the Muskies to find a team that went undefeated in the NorWOSSA regular season and playoffs (their lone loss was an exhibition game to Roseau). And that team went on to win all-Ontario gold here.
The Muskies dominated in the ’80s, also capturing gold in 1986 in Oakville to go along with three silver medals. Altogether, the Muskies have won two gold, four silvers, and a bronze at OFSAA.
But Edwards doesn’t like to compare this team to past ones.
“It was a good team back then [in ’89]. We had Gib Tucker, Bill Tucker, and [former New York Ranger draft pick] Wayne Strachan,” he noted. “There’s no way you can compare them.
“This is a new time and a new team. The league was much tougher back then,” he noted.
Still, success is nothing new for Muskie hockey. The tradition is as old as the arena they still play in, and few teams can come close to their track record.
“The kids grow up wanting to play Muskie hockey,” said Blueline Club president Barney Maher, which helps pay team expenses each season. “The little guys all want to be Muskies.
“And I think it’s all the support we get from the community, not just Fort Frances,” said Maher. “We get good crowd support, and while we do a lot of work by raising extra funds, the parents really get behind the team and they do whatever you ask them.”
Muskie captain Chris Kellar agreed it’s each and every kids’ dream growing up to wear the colours of the black-and-gold.
“Especially when you’re younger, there’s so much excitement to go to the games,” said Kellar, in his final year with the team. “You want to carry that tradition and see the young kids get excited.”
The kids have no choice but to get excited with this year’s team, a hard-working bunch blessed with skilled players at every position.
But the team’s biggest strength, far and away, has to be their forwards. The Muskies had six players in the top 10 in league scoring, led by second-year forward Ross Anderson, who finished third overall with 21 goals and 16 assists.
Adam McTavish was right behind him with 35 points while Steve Keesic added 33.
Jeff Savage, who scored 11 goals and added 12 assists in 12 regular-season games, was a solid contributor during the regular season and was simply on fire in the championship series, scoring five times.
He finished as the top scorer in the playoffs with eight goals and six assists.
“We have depth, right from the defencemen to the forwards. Any line up front can score,” said Kellar. “The way the coaches talk about it, this year could be special.
“We have so much depth, you get chills when you think about it.”
And as strong as they are offensively, they’re equally tough in their own end.
They have a very strong one-two goaltending tandem in Blake Carlson and Jamie Booth. The pair combined for a microscopic .163 goals against average during the regular-season and Edwards has stressed all year that either one could be the team’s No. 1 netminder.
In fact, Edwards’ confidence allowed him to rotate them on a game-to-game basis all year.
“It allows us to take a couple of more chances back there,” said Muskie assistant coach Ken Christiansen.
The defence is led by the strong play of first-year player Dan “Boomer” Redford, an OAC player who walked into the Muskie camp just this past season.
Christiansen said he’s been the backbone of the defensive unit, one of those types who can break the game open on the offensive end.
“He’s very good at jumping into the play and he’s scored some key goals for us this year,” he said.
The Muskies will need guys like Redford to be at the top of their game at OFSAA. If they do, their perfect league record will be capped off with a perfect finish–all-Ontario gold.