One year later: Mustangs and Trojans reflect on final games prior to COVID-19 shutdown

The series didn’t start great for the Melfort Mustangs as they fell 4-1 to the sixth-seeded Bruins in Melfort on March 6. Mustangs head coach and general manager Trevor Blevins said they kind of “laid an egg” in game one, but responded in a big way the next night as they flipped the script for a 4-1 win, creating some momentum as the series shifted to Estevan.

On Monday, March 9, residents of Melfort sent off the Mustangs bus with the fire department and RCMP leading the way with hopes of grabbing control of the series.

On March 10, the Mustangs won game three in overtime by a 2-1 score, thanks to Andrew Hunt’s first goal of the playoffs, halfway through the first overtime period. At that point, the Mustangs led the series 2-1 and had the momentum, which carried into game four in Estevan on March 11.

In game four, the teams battled hard and it looked like there was another overtime game on the horizon. That was until Tian Rask’s forecheck forced a turnover behind the Estevan net. Rask fed the puck to rookie Ben Tkachuk, who made no mistake with less than a minute to play in the third, ultimately winning the game for the Mustangs 2-1.

“Definitely one of the biggest goals I’ve scored in a while,” Tkachuk said as he reflected one year later. “It was good, didn’t want to go into overtime back-to-back nights against that team.”

Confidence was sky high for the Mustangs as they were heading back to Melfort with a 3-1 series lead and game five at home set for March 13. Blevins said while he can’t say they would’ve won the game, he knows the effort would’ve been there.

“We were rolling, we were playing our best hockey of the year,” he said.

“We peaked at the right time, that I know.” _{-Mustangs Head Coach Trevor Blevins}

The next day, the season started to become uncertain as the National Basketball Association had paused their season the night before. Blevins said he got a text from a fellow SJHL coach that day who said the season was going to be shutdown. Ultimately, the SJHL said games would be postponed, and later the CJHL cancelled the remainder of the season.

“You go from a situation where you’re on a real high to a real low,” Blevins said. “But everyone handled it properly.”

Tkachuk said it was unfortunate they didn’t get to finish the season and he felt that it was a special group that was going to go a long way.

March 12, 2020 – Tisdale Trojans versus Regina Pat Canadians

The Tisdale Trojans made the SMAAAHL playoffs in 2020 as the seventh seed, which set up a matchup against the heavily favoured Saskatoon Blazers. They swept the Trojans in the regular season and outscored them 16-2. But the past meant nothing to the Trojans, except for some added motivation as they upset the Blazers in four games to move on and meet the Regina Pat Canadians in the semi-finals.

Game one in Regina went to the Pat Canadians on March 10, and head coach Dennis Kubat said COVID-19 was very new and unknown, but may have been the first sign things were taking a turn.

“The referees said ‘hey, we’re not going to shake hands, because of this virus,'” he said. “Honestly, I might have been naive, or what not, but I didn’t really know a lot about it. It’s crazy that the world kind of took a spin from there.”

Leading up to game two at the Tisdale RecPlex, announcements were coming from organizations left and right talking about cancellations and postponements. For the SMAAAHL, they were told to play their games that night on March 12 and after that, the season would be paused. Kubat said it was tough as a coach with so much uncertainty as he went into the dressing room before, during, and after the game.

He said while the team didn’t play well in their 4-2 loss to the Pat Canadian’s, it’s pretty understandable considering the circumstances.

“Obviously in a perfect situation if you’re getting greedy, it would’ve been awesome to win that game and say you were tied 1-1 at the stoppage instead of being down 2-0 in that series,” Kubat told northeastNOW. “But I can understand from the boys perspective of how it would be a pretty big emotional roller coaster.”

The next day, it was made official the SMAAAHL season was done for the year. Kubat said he felt for the graduating players who’s U18 careers would be coming to an end so suddenly.

The big picture

As time progressed, both the Mustangs and Trojans were able to get back to hockey in some fashion. Melfort was 2-3-0-0 when the SJHL went on pause, and the Trojans were 2-1-0-0 when the SMAAAHL shut down.

Tkachuk, who had three goals in five games for the Mustangs this season, said looking back at the big picture, it puts into perspective not taking things for granted.

“I think everyone on our team and everyone in the league would agree that you can’t take anything for granted,” he said.

“Every time you go out there and step on the ice you have to give it your best.” _{-Mustang Forward Ben Tkachuk}

Blevins said the health of the players and society as a whole are key and he understands what had to take place.

For the Mustangs, they had a bit more to play for to start the year as teammate Dylan Ashe passed away in September. Blevins said it was important to get back onto the ice in some form to honour Ashe.

“I think it was real important for us to get together with the veterans and grieve,” Blevins said. “And obviously start the season for him.”

The Mustangs were able to honour Ashe in November by retiring his number 27 prior to their opening game against the Flin Flon Bombers.

Kubat said he was happy to get back to some sort of routine with hockey as the team got back together to try and begin a season. He said it was important for the players to be around each other. Kubat said a major message to his players was to keep a positive attitude through all of it.

“You’ve kind of [got] two choices,” he said. “You can say ‘poor me’, or you can use this as an opportunity to improve.”

The SJHL continues to try and have some sort of a season with a bubble scenario being proposed to the Saskatchewan government.

The Trojans on the other hand, must wait until fall as the SMAAAHL officially cancelled the season on Feb. 26.

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mat.barrett@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @matbarrett6

by Mat Barrett

One year later: Mustangs and Trojans reflect on final games prior to COVID-19 shutdown

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