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By Ben Tompkins

Battle of the Perfects

Mustangs set for best-on-best, home-and-home with Millionaires

Oct 4, 2024 | 1:18 PM

The Melfort Mustangs begin a home-and-home set against the Melville Millionaires Friday at the Northern Lights Palace.

The two teams will clash where one will eventually be handed their first loss of the season.

“I think we’ve defended really well through the first four games, we’ve been blocking a lot of shots, and the boys have been keeping it pretty easy for me by just forcing lots of shots to the outside, so it’s been nice,” explained Melfort netminder Kristian Coombs.

“Melville is definitely a good team this year too, so it’ll be a good challenge for us. I think they’ll be one of our main rivals this year with teams like them and Yorkton at the top of the standings with us.”

Tonight’s contest will be just the second home game of the season for the Mustangs so far, with the previous game ending in a 6-2 victory over Flin Flon.

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Meanwhile, Saturday’s game will shift back to the Millionaires’ home ice, with the Stangs having already won three on the road this year, albeit each by just a single goal.

“I think it’s better that we get to see them a couple times in a row, rather than just once, so we can see how they play in all the different situations… it’s also better that we get to play them at home first so we can show them what we do here and then hopefully continue that momentum on the road,” Coombs added.

“I think my first couple games weren’t too stressful, but in Weyburn this past weekend it was definitely a bit stressful, even though all three games I’ve played we’ve been scored on first. It’s just kind of feeling familiar now at this point, so if I get scored on first, it’s kind of business as usual.”

Coombs is 3-0 early on this season, despite playing from behind, backstopping his way to great numbers, such as a 1.65 goals-against-average and a .946 save percentage.

Those numbers, along with his perfect record and nearly 30 saves a game (88 in total) earned him the first Goalie of the Week award this season.

“That meant a lot, it’s nice to get recognized like that, especially in the first week of the season. It’s nice to get a good start like that, not off to a slow start or anything, hangover from the championship we didn’t have that, so that’s good,” Coombs told northeastNOW.

Coombs’ teammate Nic Andrusiak was also named the first Defenceman of the week, after recording six points in his first four points.

As far as teammates are concerned, it was announced that the Blue and Green would be getting a new one this week when they acquired Ashton Hutchinson.

Coombs and the rest of the squad are excited about the pickup and are hopeful that he resembles his older brother.

“Hopefully he can do what his brother did and come here and be a top guy. It’ll be nice to see a Hutchinson again, and maybe he’ll get his brother’s number if Hamilton changes again,” Coombs concluded.

Friday’s match at the Palace is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

On X @BenTompkins_8