(Mat Barrett/northeastNOW Staff)

By Mat Barrett

Mustangs vs Klippers

Mustangs grab 2-0 stranglehold in quarter-final series with Klippers

Mar 17, 2019 | 6:59 AM

It’s been two big wins in two nights for the Melfort Mustangs in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) playoffs.

Saturday evening, the Mustangs protected home ice once again. This time, it was a 5-2 win over the Kindersley Klippers to give Melfort a 2-0 series lead.

The Mustangs got the opening tally just over five minutes into the game as Justin Ball beat Justen Close. That was followed about four minutes later by Braeden Young who tipped in a Nolan Kadachuk shot from the point to make it 2-0 and the Mustangs seemed to be in full control.

However, the Klippers cut the lead down to 2-1 as Noah Bankowski ripped a sharp angle shot passed Noah Giesbrecht as the final marker of the period. Mustangs Head Coach Trevor Blevins said they were much better throughout the game than they were the night before.

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“I thought we were real tough tonight,” Blevins told northeastNOW. “We were just competitive for most of the game really. I didn’t think we had too many soft plays out there, I thought we were hard on lots of pucks we competed on. We were physical too.”

In the middle stanza, Melfort got a goal from Carson Albrecht, just a minute and a half into the frame, his third of the playoffs. Kinderlsey responded short-handed though as Kyle Bosch got a break and was able to beat Giesbrecht to make it 3-2. On that same penalty, the Mustangs got that goal back as George King fired one toward the net that found its way past Close and the Mustangs led 4-2 after two.

In the third period, the Klippers came hard and gave the Mustangs all they could handle. A big contributor of that was four powerplay chances for the Klippers in the third period. Melfort killed them all off, and killed off seven in total throughout the game.

“I thought we did a great job of getting in shooting lanes,” Blevins said. “I really thought guys paid the price up top to make sure pucks were directed or blocked or got sticks in lanes. Then really down low too, defence did a great job of taking away time and space and what can you say, Noah [Giesbrecht] was great.”

Giesbrecht stopped 29 out of 31 in the win, but there were multiple high-end chances from the Klippers.

Carson Albrecht added and empty net, short-handed goal for the Mustangs to make it 5-2.

Games three and four go Monday and Tuesday, March 18 and 19 in Kindersley.

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mat.barrett@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @matbarrett6