The Nipawin Hawks surround goaltender Gage Roberts after upsetting Melfort Saturday in Nipawin. (Clark Stork/northeastNOW Staff)

By Clark Stork

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The Nipawin Hawks are in the win column for the first time in 2025 after upsetting Melfort 4-1 in Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) regular season action Saturday.

Riding an 11-game losing streak and seeking their first win since Dec. 13, Nipawin stunned their archrivals thanks to a pair of powerplay goals from Carter Anderson and two third-period tallies from Mason Karakochuk. After icing the game with an empty net goal while Kristian Coombs was on the bench for an extra attacker, the second-year Hawks forward said the win felt amazing for the group.

“It feels great, we needed it big time. It feels awesome,” he said.

Anderson, 19, leads the team with 16 goals on the season, Karakochuk has 11 this year, and as a 17-year-old rookie last year, the Hawks’ second overall U15 draft pick from a couple of years ago had just one goal. He added that despite a 3-2 loss in Yorkton Friday, the Hawks had their best weekend in the last while.

“I think we deserved to win yesterday, and the bounces didn’t go our way. We played our hearts out this weekend and we deserved everything that came our way tonight,” he added.

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The Hawks special teams have been an Achilles’ heel this season, but Nipawin was perfect on the penalty kill and scored a pair of powerplay markers as well.

Gage Roberts made 27 stops in goal after a strong 32-save performance on the road in Yorkton Friday.

Nipawin is off until Saturday when they host the Melville Millionaires. The SJHL has a week break as 60 players including Karakochuk and teammates Ashton Tait and Will Whitter head to Winnipeg for the SJHL-MJHL Showcase. Karakochuk said the group will enjoy that while the team prepares for back-to-back matchups next weekend with the Millionaires.

“The biggest thing is to not take our foot off the gas,” Karakochuk said. “If anything we have to build off this weekend and a week of practice will do just that.”

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clark.stork@pattisonmedia.com