Mustangs players surround rookie netminder Kristian Coombs after he picked up his first career SJHL win (Ben Tompkins/northeastNOW)

By Ben Tompkins

Resilient Performance

Coombs picks up first career victory in Mustangs triumph over Broncos

Nov 26, 2023 | 10:41 AM

The Melfort Mustangs had arguably their best effort of the season on Saturday night, which led to their guttiest win since opening weekend in Flin Flon, as they took down the Humboldt Broncos, 5-4.

The Mustangs were back in Humboldt after falling to the Broncos on Friday in Melfort, as they salvaged a weekend split despite a total of eight regulars out of their lineup.

The Stangs’ entire fourth line of forwards were affiliate players and they had their backup goalie in net, as he was searching for his first career SJHL victory.

“Obviously, that’s a huge character build, I mean we got eight important injuries and we had a whole fourth line of APS that also played a game at 1:30 today and they came in and they battled,” said assistant coach, Tye Scherger.

“We had every single guy who played tonight step up and play a huge role and good for (Kristian Coombs) to get his first win.”

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The game was tied between the two out-of-division rivals after the first and second at two, as both teams each had a lead at one point entering the third.

It was then in the final frame that three very questionable calls sent the Blue and Green to the penalty box, and resulted in two Broncos goals.

The Mustangs, however, kept their emotions in check, scoring in between the first and the second Humboldt powerplays (to tie it at three) before scoring shorthanded on the final man disadvantage to even the game at fours, and eventually capitalizing on their own man advantage with just 63 seconds left to steal away the victory.

Melfort’s newly acquired defenceman, Nolan Henderson, also had his first two goals of the season (both on the powerplay), which included the game-winner, as he finished with a four-point night.

“Obviously, we had (Chase Friedt-Mohr) come in sick this morning, so we were juggling the d-lines and put (Unger and Henderson) and wow, it looked like they did have chemistry right from the get-go, so that’s awesome and good for (Henderson) getting his first two and let’s keep rolling,” Scherger added.

With the win, the Blue and Green also evened up the season series with the Green and Gold at one a piece and claimed their third victory in their last four tries.

The Stangs will now travel to Flin Flon on Wednesday for the final time this season to face the league-leading Bombers and complete their four-game stretch of matchups against the three teams higher than them in the standings.

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

On X: @BenTompkins_8