CRAIG SCHROTER Special to The Standard
KAWARTHA LAKES: A bad first period came back to haunt the Muskies Friday night as they fell to the Brampton Admirals by a score of 6 to 3. There was anticipation in the crowd as the teams took the ice as this was a winnable looking game on paper but the Muskies came out flat as Brampton scored a couple of early goals. The first went to Patrick Del Vecchio from Jake Barkley and Aaron Dickson at 4:58, and Thomas Harbour scored at 6:57 from Josh Sinanan and Michael Hill. The Muskies enjoyed a couple of power plays but came up empty while Peter Stojcevski capitalized on a Brampton man advantage at 18:45 from Dante Cavaliere and Del Vecchio. Head Coach Brendan O’Grady switched things up to start the second opting to spark the team by pulling Dean Buchholz from the goal and sending in Ben Edwards (pictured) who just joined the team yesterday. Edwards was greeted with an early Brampton goal from Dakota Zarundy at 1:30 to make it 4 to 0. From that point though the Muskies seemed to find their legs and really took the game over for the remainder of the period. Thomas Johnston got the Fish on the board with his 3rd of the year on a power play from Tristan Roberts, and Riley Twofoot at 4:44. At the 18:40 mark of the period Matt King made a great rush down the ice to get the puck to the goal before Roberts would jam in his 3rd of the year, to make it 4 to 2 and give the Muskies some life heading into the third. The Muskies continued to press in the third but Travis Smith held his own in the Admirals goal. Midway through the period the Admirals scored a quick pair to put the game away. Hill scored from Zarundy at 10:04 the Christos Rodis scored from Sam Marit and Smith at 12:35. Noah Pardy added his 1st of the year for the Muskies at 12:53 Cameron Gillis and Twofoot to round out the scoring. After the game I spoke to the newly acquired Ben Edwards. He told me he had just arrived in town last night, and although he was nervous, he was happy to get into his first taste of Junior A action so quickly. “I didn’t have much time to think about it”, he said when asked how he felt about his being called into the game. “It’s my first time away from home, and the atmosphere of the game was very different”, he added. Prior to the move he had been playing Junior B in the Brantford area. Edwards looked good overall stopping 11 of the 14 shots he faced. O’Grady was not happy with his team’s overall performance. “We have to be better,” he said after the game. “We can’t accept settling for a good effort in the second and third, especially when the next three games are so important.” One thing he mentioned was the team was poor defensively, making a number of weak efforts in clearing attempts. The next game for the Muskies is Tuesday night when they head to Whitby.[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]