(Broad Leaf Media/Facebook)

By Ben Tompkins

Back from the Showcase

Mustangs return to the ice to face rival Hawks

Feb 3, 2024 | 3:20 PM

The Melfort Mustangs are back to business tonight as they travel to Nipawin to face their rival Hawks.

Melfort hasn’t played a regular season game since last Thursday in Wilcox, as the league took a five-day break earlier this week for the annual SJHL/MJHL Showcase.

Seven Mustang players were a part of the event in Winnipeg, along with their head coach, so they aren’t expecting any rust despite a nine-day break from league play.

“I think we have been practicing hard and some of the guys that we had at the showcase have been playing games too, so I think we’ll just pick up where we left off and hopefully we can improve a little bit more too,” explained forward Clay Sleeva.

Sleeva was one of the seven-player representatives for the team and he’s hoping all who went can use it to their advantage moving forward.

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“Those games are very fast, it’s the best of the best, so I think when we come back here and really dial it in we can take advantage of some of the teams, and hopefully, I can find the game a little bit slower and I can make plays a little bit faster and use my speed to my advantage too,” he added.

The Canora product already proved he can do that on the biggest stage, as he performed quite well at the tournament, so much so that he earned player of the game honours.

Another guy who is at the top of his game right now is the Stangs’ netminder James Venne as he was just named the SJHL Goalie of the Month for January.

“Venner’s been really good for us, he’s definitely helped us out and lots of the games we probably shouldn’t have won, but he bailed us out and got the job done,” Sleeva told northeastNOW.

For the Blue and Green, they will now play a team that does not have a lot of confidence at the moment.

The Hawks are currently on a season-long six-game losing streak after having just been blown out last night, 8-0 by the Flin Flon Bombers.

“Coming down the last two months of the regular season, there’s like 15 games left so we’ll definitely be pushing, we can’t take a night off no matter who we’re playing, bottom team or top team, so we’re expecting that they’ll definitely be pushing as well,” said Sleeva.

“You gotta use the body when you go up there, it’s kind of a small barn so we definitely want to use our body to our advantage, play with speed and transition well, and just play the Melfort Mustang style of hockey and I think we’ll be okay.”

So far the season-series between the two rivals is tied at two with Nipawin winning the first pair before the Mustangs came back with two victories of their own.

Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. with the Suncrest College pre-game show beginning at 6:45 p.m. from the Cage on 105 CJVR.

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

On X @BenTompkins_8