Muskie girls win silver at tourney

December 06, 2006

Alex Cruickshank

Hockey tournaments often are a great opportunity for coaches to experiment.
The Muskie girls’ hockey team experimented with a number of different line combinations, and tinkered a bit with their goaltending, at the Northern Shield Classic over the weekend in Dryden.
And as is the case with any experiment, the Muskies saw mixed results.
The black-and-gold advanced to the championship game courtesy of a round-robin record of 1-1-1.
However, the Muskies fell behind early to the Kenora Broncos in the final game, and despite a spirited comeback, could not recover—eventually suffering a 5-3 defeat.
Lauren Krukoski, Kailey Curtis, and Carly Holt scored in a losing cause.
“Overall it went well,” co-head coach Chris Hill said afterwards. “As always, we had close games with Dryden and Kenora, and I think that’s how the season in going to play out.
“We got into games where we got behind a little bit off the start and we battled back, so that’s good, but we also let teams battle back on us.”
Hill said it’s these mental lapses that are preventing the Muskies’ girl squad from reaching their full potential.
“It’s just little mistakes we’re making along the way,” he stressed. “We’re giving them [the opposition] little opportunities to get back in games.
“If we fix the mistakes up, we’ll be OK.”
The Muskies began the tournament on a positive note, earning a 6-1 victory over the Balmoral Hall Blazers (Winnipeg) on Friday afternoon.
Kailey Curtis led the way with a pair of goals while Carly Holt, Lauren Krukoski, Taylor Meyers, and Deanna Saunders netted the others.
The victory was a costly one, however, as Lindsay Roehrig suffered an injury during the game after she crashed head-long into the boards.
Roehrig was flown to the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg, where she received treatment for a spinal injury.
Fortunately, she was able to move all her extremities and is expected to make a full recovery.
The Muskies then lost their next round-robin game 5-3 to the Kenora Broncos on Friday night. Meyers, Cortney Caldwell, and Saunders were the goal scorers.
The Muskies wrapped up round-robin play Saturday morning by battling the host Eagles to a 3-3 tie. Scoring for the Muskies were Curtis, Kristen Penner, and Krukoski.