The Melfort Mustangs defeated the Humboldt Broncos in a 5-4 victory Feb. 22. (Mat Barrett/northeastNOW) : Teena Monteleone

By Mat Barrett

Melfort Mustangs

Mustangs need overtime to defeat Broncos

Feb 23, 2019 | 11:45 AM

It felt like a playoff game in Humboldt at the Elgar Petersen Arena Friday night.

The Broncos and Melfort Mustangs went back and forth in an exciting game but the hometown fans didn’t go home happy after the Mustangs took the game in a 5-4 overtime victory.

Scoring didn’t begin until about 12 minutes into the game when Zack Smith scored for the Mustangs after a flurry of chances from the visitors. The Broncos would respond with goals from Reid Arnold, and Mark Edmands. Edmands’ goal came on the powerplay. The Mustangs struggled in the first period but head coach Trevor Blevins said they turned things around in the second.

“I think a lot of it had to do with compete level,” Blevins said. “I thought they beat us to a lot of pucks, and the physical part, and just stick on stick battles were in favour of Humboldt. I just thought we did a great job after the first period to reset and came out hard. I thought we were the better team in that period obviously.”

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The Mustangs were able to get a pair of goals in that second period. Both goals came on the powerplay with Justin Ball scoring very early in the man-advantage, just a minute and a half into the second period. Zach Anderson made it 3-2 at the 5:59 mark of the second period. Despite the goals, the Mustangs were outshot in the frame 12-7.

Tyson Meyers extended the Mustang lead to 4-2 early in the third but the Broncos were not going down without a fight. The Broncos were getting chances on a power play when the puck trickled across the crease and seemed to be kicked in by the Bronco player; however, the referees allowed the goal, making it 4-3. Then, with under three minutes to play, Chase Felgueiras tied things up for the Broncos.

Melfort outshot the Broncos 4-0 in the extra frame thanks to a powerplay that bled over from the end of the third period. After a faceoff in Mustang territory, Jake Hobson created a two-on-one break and fired a pass over Zach Anderson who made no mistake on his second of the night, giving the Mustangs the 5-4 win. Blevins said overall he was happy with the performance.

“It was a good effort,” Blevins said. “It was back and forth. I thought we fought the puck a little bit but we battled through it tonight on the road. For some reason we just didn’t seem as confident with the puck but sometimes you got to win ugly.”

The Mustangs win moves them to 34-15-4-0 on the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League season. With the Nipawin Hawks loss on Friday, the Mustangs are now just two points back of Nipawin for first in the Sherwood Division with both teams having five games left, including a home and home on March 1, 2.

Melfort is home to Kindersley on Saturday, Feb. 23.

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mat.barrett@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @matbarrett6