By Clark Stork

Mustangs and Hawks each rebound with wins

Feb 24, 2018 | 8:20 AM

An early two-goal deficit didn’t hold back the Melfort Mustangs from dimming the Battleford North Stars 4-3 Friday in Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) action.

Brad Girard and Cole Johnson scored within the first six minutes of the game before Melfort captain Andrew Thompson cut the lead in half with a power-play goal at 16:29 of the first period. Rock Ruschkowski redirected a Kayle Tosh point shot for his 11th of the season tying the game 2-2 in the second. Owen Lamb restored the Stars’ lead with 45 seconds remaining in the period.

Former North Star Ben Allen notched his seventh goal of the season at 3:33 of the third period, tying the score 3-3. Colin Schmidt tapped a rebound past Joel Grzybowski with under six minutes remaining in regulation for the game-winning goal. 

Allen said the team wanted to play well after losing 6-0 in their last game.

“We thought about the loss all week, this was a huge game for us even if it wasn’t against the Battlefords,” Allen told northeastNOW after the game. “After that kind of loss you need to rebound and I think we did great.”

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Allen added an assist against his former teammates. Reed Gunville and Thompson each had two points as well. The previous match-up between the teams in Melfort saw the Stars route Melfort 7-3. Allen said the retribution felt great.

“I didn’t say anything to them, but it feels great to rub it in their face and get them back on the scoreboard. To get that against your old team, it’s great,” he said.

Evan Plotnik collected his SJHL leading 23rd victory making 20 saves in the Mustangs’ net. Grzybowski turned aside 34 Mustang shots in the loss.

Melfort hosts Notre Dame Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

In Flin Flon, the Hawks fought back in the third period to diffuse the Bombers 3-2.

After a goalless first period, Ben Lanfermann opened the scoring at the 11:33 mark of period two. The lead stood until Nipawin’s Brett Harasymuk tied the score 1-1. Jake Tremblay and Josh McDougall picked up assists on Harasymuk’s 17th goal of the year. Just 19 seconds later, Brandson Hein put the Bombers back up a goal.

McDougall tied the game again with 4:31 to play from Brandan Arnold on a power-play for his 16th goal of the year. Arnold scored 42 seconds later with his 29th goal of the season allowing Nipawin to secure the victory.

Declan Hobbs made 30 stops in the victory. Brenden Newton saved 27 of 30 in the Bombers’ net in the loss.

On Family Day, the Hawks lost in Flin Flon to the Bombers. The teams meet again at the Centennial Arena Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

clark.stork@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @ClarkStork