(File photo courtesy/Broad Leaf Media, Facebook)

By Ben Tompkins

Round 1 Rematch

Mustangs head to La Ronge for first time since late March

Oct 20, 2023 | 1:21 PM

The Melfort Mustangs are headed north Friday night to take on their Sherwood division rivals, the La Ronge Ice Wolves.

The contest will mark the first time Melfort has visited the Mel Hegland Uniplex since late March, when they knocked the Ice Wolves out of the playoffs, in a dominant 8-2 win, in game six of round one.

The Mustangs also scored eight against La Ronge earlier this season, during their home opener in late September.

According to Stangs’ defenceman, Ty Thorton, who also played in last year’s postseason battle, things won’t come that easy for his team this time around.

“It’s a tough way to play there, you got guys hitting lots, La Ronge likes to play hard and it’s a small arena too, so not much time with the puck, quick plays and tough battles everywhere on the ice,” he told northeastNOW. “We just have to keep it simple, you don’t have much time to think, so let’s keep it simple and play hard, especially with the body.”

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The Ice Wolves are historically a much tougher team to play at home than on the road and actually have a 14-8-2 record against Melfort in the last five years.

While La Ronge is currently a bottom-two team in the league with a record of 2-8-1, and the Mustangs are a top-two team with an 8 -1 record, Thorton isn’t taking anything for granted.

“They’re a very tough team to play in their barn especially, regardless of their record, so we’ve got to go in feeling confident with playing simple and tough to play against,” he added. “Especially in the start, getting it deep and ripping bodies off and carrying that throughout the whole game.”

The Blue and Green are coming off a bounce-back victory on Wednesday night, as they took down the Battlefords North Stars 4-1.

The game came as revenge for last year’s playoffs, as well as a rebound from their first loss of the season.

Thorton mentioned he hopes his group plays a similar style, and if they do, then they should come out on top.

“I thought we had a pretty good bounce-back game, kind of got lost a little bit in the first period, but bounced back in the second and battled hard defensively. If we keep that and focus in on the d-zone there, we should be good to go for the whole game on Friday,” he said.

“Just plain and simple off the start and once we pop one, we’ll be good to go to keep going after that and keep going with the same pace and hopefully have the full 60 minutes.”

Opening faceoff is set for 7:30 p.m., as the Stangs look to begin a new winning streak on 105 CJVR, as Ben Tompkins has the call.

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter @BenTompkins_8