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By Mat Barrett

Mustangs Playoffs

‘First one to four’: Mustangs not dwelling on season series with Bruins ahead of semifinals

Mar 29, 2019 | 9:02 AM

The semifinals are set in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) Playoffs and they get underway on Friday, March 29.

For the Melfort Mustangs, they will take on the Estevan Bruins, a team that the Mustangs did not fare well against in the regular season. Estevan was able to win all four meetings against Melfort, but Mustangs Head Coach and General Manager Trevor Blevins said they aren’t worried about the past.

“We’re not focused on what happened,” Blevins said. “Obviously, it’s a new series, new season, it’s the first one to four.”

“We’re not too concerned about what’s happened in the past.” _{-Trevor Blevins}

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In those games, the Mustangs didn’t really have their full roster in any of them. Forward George King, and goalie Noah Giesbrecht each only played one game against the Bruins after being acquired at the trade deadline and Tyson Meyers missed two games against the Bruins, just to name a few.

The Bruins outscored the Mustangs 24-9 in their four regular season meetings, and they scored 22 goals in their seven game quarter-final series with Humboldt. Blevins said they need to control the Estevan offence.

“I think most importantly, we have to defend hard in all three zones,” he said. “But, picking up away from the puck is going to be key for us as far as limiting the options, and making sure they don’t get those back door scoring chances and those chances that they killed us on in the past that we have to sharpen up on.”

The Mustangs only needed five games in their quarter-final series to beat the Kindersley Klippers, a series that Blevins believes was good preparation for their current opponent.

“Kindersley’s forcheck was outstanding, and Estevan’s is right there too,” Blevins told northeastNOW. “So, I think we have to defend that and focus in. I think it’s a great preparation for this series to manage Kindersley’s forcheck as best we could and got some success on it, so I think that’s some confidence for us.”

Melfort got a lot of offence in their series with Kindersley from the top line of Justin Ball, Carson Albrecht, and Tanner Zentner. The trio accounted for 10 of the Mustangs 15 goals in the series. Defensively, the Mustangs got a great performance from goalie Noah Giesbrecht. The 19-year-old netminder was 4-0 in the series and tallied a 2.00 goals against average, and a .939 save percentage.

According to the SJHL website, the Mustangs averaged over 1,000 for each of their home games, and Blevins said it’s great to see the fan fare for the team ramp up at this time of year.

“It’s always a fun time of year in the playoffs,” Blevins said. “Even better when you get the support and we thank everybody. I know it’s huge for the club and it’s huge for our guys to know that there’s a lot of support in our community for our team and they thrive on it.”

Game two of the best of seven series will take place back at the Northern Lights Palace in Melfort on Saturday, March 30. Games three and four will be on Tuesday, April 2 and Wednesday, April 3 in Estevan.

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mat.barrett@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @matbarrett6