Joey Payeur
February guarantees: the snow will fall, the temperature will drop, and the Muskie boys’ hockey team will make plans to visit the all-Ontarios one more time.
The black-and-gold have the chance to make it nine-straight NorWOSSA titles when they host the Kenora Broncos in the best-of-three final.
Game 1 goes tomorrow 7:15 p.m. at the Ice For Kids Arena., with Game 2 set for Saturday in Kenora.
Game 3 (if necessary) will be back in Fort Frances, with the game tentatively slated for Monday night at the Ice For Kids Arena.
Fort High advanced to the final with a two-game sweep of the Sioux Lookout Warriors in the best-of-three semi-final, winning 5-0 in the opener here last Thursday before wrapping up the series with a 6-2 win Saturday in Sioux Lookout.
“I thought Sioux Lookout played well in Game 2,” said Muskie head coach Jamie Davis, whose team tied 2-2 after one period before scoring four unanswered goals over the final two frames.
“Whether we had bus legs or whatever, we didn’t have a good start,” he admitted.
“The last 40 [minutes], we played a lot better and more up to our potential.”
With defencemen Mike Drouin (finger) and Max Williams (shoulder) unavailable, the Muskies had to play with only four blueliners for the second-straight game.
“The guys back there getting the extra minutes have stepped up and that’s good to see,” lauded Davis.
The teams traded goals in the first period, with Graeme Kitt and Cam Gushulak scoring for the Muskies while Kendal Schultz had both Warriors’ markers.
In the second, Jake Clendenning converted Kendyn Faragher’s feed to put Fort High ahead to stay before Sully Shortreed deflected a Cole Allan shot later in the period to make it 4-2.
“Even at that point, I thought if they [the Warriors] score again, they’re still in the game,” said Davis.
But it was Faragher scoring to make it 5-2—wiring one five-hole from near the Warriors’ blueline.
“That put the icing on the cake,” agreed Davis, who then watched Colton Bodnar close out the scoring in the waning moments.
“They had some chances in the third but getting three goals in 12 minutes was going to be tough,” he noted.
Matt Booth earned the win in goal.
Gushulak and Bodnar both were back in the lineup for Saturday’s game.
Gushulak came out with a possible concussion in the second period of Game 1 after having his head hit into the boards.
Bodnar, meanwhile, missed all of Game 1 with a rib injury.
But more injury woes plagued the Muskies on Saturday as Shortreed took a shot from behind and left the game due to post-concussion symptoms, though he reportedly will be ready for the NorWOSSA final.
“We’ll just take it as it comes,” Davis reasoned about the run of walking wounded in his dressing room.
“We should have guys coming back for Thursday.”
In the opener here last Thursday, the Muskies only led 1-0 after the first on a power-play goal by Drouin just 52 seconds into the game.
Fort High kicked into overdrive in the second.
Drouin finished off a 2-on-1 before Chase McGuire banged home the rebound of Kitt’s original shot just 15 seconds later.
“We had some good pressure going before that and even after the goals,” noted Davis.
Kitt made it 4-0 with a power-play goal later in the period.
Muskie goalie Dylan Ossachuk made his best stop of the night late in the second, turning aside Parker McCrae on a clear-cut breakaway.
Drouin then was slashed in the finger—creating a cut that forced him to leave the game midway through the third to get stitched up at La Verendrye Hospital.
That left Davis with just Byron Stewart, Connor Tibbs, and Cole Allan as natural defencemen, leading him to shuffle Kitt from his forward spot to fill the void.
Clendenning’s intense forechecking pressure in the third caused a turnover, with him feeding Nick Hahkala in front for a short-handed goal.
“To get a goal in my first Muskie playoff game was pretty exciting,” Hahkala beamed afterwards.
“Just to get to play in the playoffs at all is pretty exciting, especially with this group of guys.”
The Muskies held the Warriors to an 0-for-7 night on the power play.
“Penalty-killing is one of the most important parts of the game,” stressed Stewart.
“You’re never going to win without your penalty-killing.”
Kenora, meanwhile, swept the Dryden Eagles, last year’s NorWOSSA runner-up, in their semifinal series by scores of 6-0 and 5-1.
“Kenora’s goalie [Noah Witzke] is playing well for them,” said Davis.
“All year, we felt Kenora was a team that could sneak up on you,” he added, while not putting too much stock in the fact Fort High beat the Broncos in all three league meetings this season by a combined score of 21-3.
“It’s a series and anything can happen,” Davis warned.
