The Melfort Mustangs won their season opener 6-3 over the visiting Nipawin Hawks (Image Credit: Ben Tompkins/northeastNOW)

By Ben Tompkins

Great Start

Mustangs earn opening night statement win, go for perfect weekend in La Ronge

Sep 19, 2026 | 2:05 PM

The Melfort Mustangs are a perfect 1- 0 to start the season, following a 6-3 statement win over their biggest rivals, the Nipawin Hawks.

Friday night marked the second year in a row that Melfort started the season at home against Nipawin, this time coming away with the victory and doing so in fairly dominant fashion.

“That’s always the goal: to go one and zero to start, and we talk about the process a lot, and I thought we had a pretty good week, and you know we executed what we wanted to do for the most part tonight. I think there are obviously things we need to clean up, but we got nicely rewarded with the win,” said assistant coach Clarke Huxley.

“It was good to see the outburst of six; everything seemed to be clicking, and we were getting contributions from everyone offensively. We were opportunistic off the rush, on the power play, and we had a shorthanded goal. We were doing it in all kinds of ways, and that’s good to see.”

Things were fairly tight between the two clubs through the opening two periods, as Melfort led 2-1 after 20 and 3-2 after 40.

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It was then a third-period outburst that really put the game away, with the Mustangs scoring three straight to make it a 6-2 cushion, before a late Hawks goal made it 6-3.

The Stangs now turn their attention to another divisional rival in the La Ronge Ice Wolves, as they hit the road Saturday to visit the JRMCC.

“I think we just wanna build on what we had against Nipawin; we did a lot of things well offensively and on the power play, and even in the D zone. Maybe just a few things in the D zone or just systematically that we can clean up, but that’ll come with time, so we’re just looking forward to La Ronge,” Huxley added.

“I think we just want to play our game. It’s a divisional matchup, so they always play heavy, and they always play hard up there. Kind of a new regime up there, so not too much pre-scout, but we know that they’re going to be hard. We know they’re going to play heavy, so we’ve got to bring our A game and just kind of roll that into La Ronge.”

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

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by Ben Tompkins

Mustangs earn opening night statement win, go for perfect weekend in La Ronge

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