Melfort Mustangs team photo ahead of the Centennial Cup (Ben Tompkins/northeastNOW)

By Ben Tompkins

First Time Foes

Mustangs prepared to face unfamiliar opponents

May 9, 2024 | 8:12 AM

The 2024 Centennial Cup begins Thursday in Oakville, Ont. as 10 teams from across Canada compete for the National Championship.

This means plenty of first-time matchups will be had, as organizations with thousands of kilometres in between battle with the highest of stakes.

“The biggest thing for us is to play our identity, we want to play like we did all year. Play with heart, play simple, and play with grit.” said Assistant Coach Tye Scherger. “Me and (Trevor) Blevins have done our scouting reports, so the boys know what they’re up against, but the most important thing is still to just stick to our identity.”

“The SJHL is one of the toughest leagues in Canada to play in because of how gritty and physical it is, so we’re going to come out with those elements and bring that hard-nosed identity because we want to be tough to play against.”

Melfort will play four round-robin games, one against each team in their pool.

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Group B, features the winners of the Superior International Junior Hockey League (SIJHL) in the Sioux Lookout Bombers, the winners of the Maritime Junior Hockey League (MHL) in the Miramichi Timberwolves, the winners of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League (MJHL) in the Winkler Flyers, and the host Oakville Blades of the Ontario Junior Hockey League (OJHL).

All the contests will be held at the Sixteen Mile Sports Complex in Oakville, an Olympic-sized rink, similar to the Duncan McNeil Arena in Wilcox.

According to Scherger time and space will be key to take away from the eastern teams, while their matchup with their Manitoba counterparts will likely be a grind both ways.

“The Maritimes is our first game and they have a lot of Major Junior guys that have experience, so they’re pretty skilled and fast. We’ll want to take away their time and space, get in their face, hit them as much as he can and wear them down. As for our game against Winkler, they play the same way that we do, so that’ll be a hard and gritty game, similar to the one we had against Flin Flon, so it’ll be a good test,” Scherger added.

“It’ll obviously be a little different on such a big ice surface, but we’ll be able to use our speed to our advantage. Hopefully, we can settle into our first game and we’ll be good from there.”

The Stangs begin their tournament Thursday night against the Miramichi Timberwolves, before facing off against Winkler on Saturday.

They will then play Sioux Lookout on Tuesday, before wrapping up pool play on Wednesday against Oakville.

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

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