(Mat Barrett/northeastNOW Staff)

By Mat Barrett

Melfort Mustangs

Mustangs handle Hounds, secure 10 wins in a row

Feb 27, 2019 | 9:00 AM

Another double digit win streak for the Melfort Mustangs in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL).

The Mustangs downed the Notre Dame Hounds on Tuesday, Feb. 26 in Wilcox by a 4-1 score, giving Melfort their 10th win in a row. They also had a 10-game win streak in November of this year.

Kayle Tosh scored just 37 seconds into the hockey game for the Mustangs as they got out to the early lead. Tanner Zentner made it 2-0 late in the period on a powerplay as he finished off a great passing play that started at Carson Albrecht, and went to Colin Schmidt who fed it to Zentner in front, giving Melfort the lead after one.

Notre Dame came back hard in the second, especially in the first half, and they got rewarded as Jakob Breault scored to make it 2-1. Melfort only tallied seven shots in the frame, but they were able to score on one of them as Zack Smith notched his ninth of the year to give Melfort the two goal lead once again and they gained some momentum back heading into the intermission.

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The momentum didn’t carry over for the Mustangs as Notre Dame came out flying again, but in this period, they couldn’t get a puck by Giesbrecht. Justin Ball netted and empty net goal to make it 4-1, and Melfort would weather the storm to hold on for the win. Head Coach Trevor Blevins said his team did well in the third to battle.

“They were coming a bit in the third,” Blevins said. “But I thought we did a good job defensively too. They shot lots of pucks from everywhere, but Noah stood tall and did a great job eating lots of them, directing pucks and making sure none of the rebounds sat out in front of him. So, he played hard and battled hard which was good for us, and we’re pretty confident in our goaltending right now, that’s for sure.”

Giesbrecht stopped 35 of 36 shots in the win, including 28 saves on 29 shots in the final two periods.

Melfort was only able to fire 20 shots towards Notre Dame goalies, but Blevins said he isn’t concerned.

“Whenever you can come into Notre Dame and win, it doesn’t matter how it looks really,” Blevins said. “I’m not concerned about what the shot totals were, even our situational play tonight. It’s a big sheet of ice, we’re not used to it and we found a way to get it done.”

The Melfort win combined with the Nipawin Hawks 3-1 loss to Flin Flon has the rivals tied atop the SJHL’s Sherwood Division with 76 points. They will meet on March 1 and 2 in a home and home set with both teams only having three games remaining.

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mat.barrett@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @matbarrett6