The Shelburne Muskies kept their undefeated streak alive with a 5-3 win over the Ripley Wolves on Saturday.
The Muskies are now a perfect 8-0 on the season, and are alone in top spot in the Western Ontario Athletic Association Senior A Hockey League standings.
“It feels pretty good right now, when you get something going like this,” Muskies coach Joe Bakes said. “An 8-0 start, it’s incredible to come out of the gate like that. Especially to knock off [Ripley], they gave it to us last year 8-1.”
The Muskies started slowly and spotted Ripley a 1-0 lead. With the Shelburne defence having trouble clearing the puck that lead could have been larger, but Muskies goalie Adam Clarke was up to the challenge.
“We haven’t been the prettiest in our zone,” Bakes admitted. “The sloppiness, the running around, against the big teams they’re going to feed off that and they’re going to hurt you.”
Shelburne captain Sean Connor tied the game, and Anthony Pototschnik added a goal late in the first period to give the Muskies their first lead. The teams exchanged special teams goals in the second period, with Zac Duerden scoring shorthanded for Shelburne and Ripley adding a power play goal.
Clarke made several key saves in the early moments of the third period, and Nick Foreman scored to give Shelburne some breathing room. Brad Horan iced the game with a goal midway through the period. With their goalie pulled, the Wolves did manage one final goal with 31 seconds remaining, but it was as close as they would get.
“We came out a little slow again, and we’ve been doing that for the last few weeks,” Bakes said. “But we finished with a strong third period.
“Our schedule is so slow at this time, that we’ve only been playing [one game per week]. It’s hard to get into it. You only want to practice so many times. But I’m very impressed. There’s no better place to be than 8-0 with Elora coming in your house next week.”
The Muskies host the Elora Rocks in what promises to be an entertaining game. Elora won the WOAA title two years ago, and were league finalists last season.
“They’re a good team,” Connor said. “We can’t have a slow start like [Saturday]. We’ve got to be firing on all cylinders.”
Although Bakes calls Saturday’s game against Elora a “huge” test, he knows that the real test will come in the playoffs.
“It’s a great feeling to get almost to the halfway mark without a loss,” he said. “And position is everything for us. I was aiming for top four [in the standings]; I’ve got to be gunning for the top two now.
“The regular season has always been pretty strong for this organization, it’s the postseason that we have to dwell on. I feel that I sort of built this team around the postseason. There’s a lot of size, a lot of grit, and I think that’s going to be beneficial to us down the road.”