Joey Payeur
An undefeated record and a ninth-straight NorWOSSA crown can go a long way towards getting a team recognized.
In the case of the Muskie boys’ hockey team, it translated into the No. 5 seed in the 20-team field at the OFSAA ‘A/AA’ championship, which gets underway Monday in Ottawa.
“Being ranked higher certainly helps,” said Muskie head coach Jamie Davis, whose team will look to improve on its last two trips to OFSAA, where they were eliminated in the quarter-finals.
“It’s a bit of a mental thing going into something like that,” he noted.
“At the end of the day, the rankings don’t mean that much,” Davis conceded. “But I don’t see why it wouldn’t help our confidence.
“It’s better going in ranked in the top five than somewhere 15 through 20,” he reasoned.
The Holy Trinity Titans (Courtice) were named the top seed while the Patrick Fogarty Flames (Orillia) are ranked second.
After finishing third in their pool at the all-Ontarios in Pembroke/Petawawa last year, the Flames literally were on the road heading home when they were told another team that had finished above them had been disqualified.
That opened the door for them to make it into the quarter-finals—and that ended up being the worst-case scenario for the Muskies, who subsequently were beaten 3-1 by the Flames to be sent home instead.
Fort High, which went 15-0 during the NorWOSSA regular season and then swept both best-of-three playoff series, is the second-highest ranked team in Pool ‘C.’
Also in their pool is a familiar foe from last year’s OFSAA tournament in the third-ranked Saint Michael Mustangs (Niagara Falls), whom the Muskies beat 5-3 in their final preliminary-round game.
“They had a couple of guys I’m sure we’ll see again and their goalie was young, but he was good, so I anticipate he’ll be back,” Davis said.
Also in Pool ‘C’ are the No. 10-ranked General Amherst Bulldogs (Amherstburg), the 15th-seeded St. Joseph Jaguars (Nepean), and the No. 18-ranked Frontenac Falcons (Kingston).
The Muskies will get to ease into the tournament as they are the only Pool ‘C’ team to play just once on Monday when they battle Frontenac at 9:15 a.m. (all times CST).
Fort High then will face General Amherst at 7 a.m. on Tuesday, followed by a 1 p.m. clash with Saint Michael.
Then they’ll wrap up pool play Wednesday at 9:15 a.m. against St. Joseph.
The top two teams from each pools will advance to the cross-over quarter-finals that afternoon.
The semi-finals then go Thursday at 7 a.m., with the bronze-medal final set for noon and the gold-medal game at 12:15 p.m.
It’s guaranteed a new champion will be crowned as the two-time defending OFSAA gold-medalists, the London South Lions, did not qualify this year.
