Muskies close regular season by beating Eagles

By Andy Gardner

The Snake Island Muskies wrapped up their regular season on a positive note against the Windsor Eagles at A’nowara’ko:wa Arena.

In the Sunday, July 21 game, the Muskies scored all the goals they would need in the opening 20 minutes. The final score was 13-3.

David Oullette scored the first goal of the game for the Eagles, at 9:48 after taking a pass from Andre Laporte. Brandon Swamp got things started for Snake Island with a goal 9:31 in on a play set up by Tyren Swamp. Just under five minutes later, Ahta Lazore pushed the Muskies out to a 2-1 lead unassisted. Joel Wright less than a minute later tied the game, assisted by Sam Fountaine, and then the Muskies dominated for the remainder of play. Joe Hall scored at 16:05 with an assist from Vaughn Harris, and Jeff McNulty scored what would hold up as the game-winning goal with 20 seconds left in play, assisted by Ryan Thomas.

Laporte scored the other Eagles goal early in the third period with an assist from Fountaine.

Harris led the Muskies offense with two goals and five assists. McNulty had two goals and three helpers. Joe Hall scored once and helped set up four plays. Brandon Swamp netted a hat trick. Lazore scored twice. Jordan Thomas scored once with one assist. Shane Francis and Davis Jacobs netted singletons. Solo helpers came from Tyren Swamp, Ryan Thomas, Hall and Quinne Powless.

On July 14, the Muskies battled the Eagles and lost by one goal in a game that went into overtime. The final score was 12-11.

Snake Island scored three goals in the first 7:18, off the sticks of Geoff McNulty (from Shane Francis), Grayson Phillips (from Torry Bigtree) and Shane Francis (from Akwi David and Tyren Boots). The Eagles answered with four goals of their own to leave the scoreboard at 4-3 after 20 minutes. The Windsor goals were thanks to Jean Guy Thouin (from Ghyslain Richard), Mathew Paterson (from Francis Cote and Jerome Richard), Oliver Damphouse (from Paterson and Alexandre Masse) and Anthony Desmarais (from Davin Miller and Thouin).

Windsor dominated the second period, outscoring the Muskies 5-3 before the intermission buzzer.

Snake Island turned the tables in the third stanza. While behind 10-6, Nick Sanseverino sparked a three-goal rally just under two minutes into the frame, unassisted. Grayson Phillips punched in the next two. The first was on a play set up by David and Francis. Francis and Sanseverino picked up helpers on the second, which he fashioned during shorthanded play. Fourteen seconds later, Paterson capitalized on the powerplay for the Eagles. After about four minutes of offensive silence, Tyren Boots brought the Muskies to just a one-goal deficit after taking a pass from Francis and Geoff McNulty. With just under 10 minutes left in the period, Phillips took advantage of a powerplay tied the game to force overtime. But Richard would win the game for Windsor in sudden death after 5:11 with helpers from Thouin and Masse.

Francis led the Muskies in points with one goal and four assists. Phillips ended the game with four goals. David scored two goals and picked up two helpers. Boots scored once and set up three plays. Sanseverino scored one goal with two assists. Ryan Thomas netted a singleton. Torry Bigtree played goalie and fashioned a solo helper.

For the Eagles, Paterson had three goals and one assist. Thouin and Francis Cote each had a goal with three helpers. Simon Winquist fashioned four assists. Kevin Kendall and Richard each scored twice with one assist. Oliver Damphouse and Anthony Desmarais each picked up a single goal with a helper. Jordan Salois and Jerome Richard each tallied one helper. Masse worked the crease for 52:56 and chipped in two assists. Pascal Nolet covered the goal for the other 17:04.

On Saturday, July 20 the Muskies lost to the Kahnawake Mohawks at Kahnawake Sports Complex 18-7. Statistics were not available.