(Mat Barrett/northeastNOW Staff)

By Mat Barrett

Mustangs v. Hawks

Mustangs score knockout in nine round bout with Hawks

Mar 2, 2019 | 11:24 AM

The Melfort Mustangs and Nipawin Hawks rivalry lived up to the hype Friday.

The game remained within a goal throughout the contest, but the Mustangs earned themselves a massive road win in the shootout, with a 4-3 final in a game that had the intensity of playoff hockey.

Nipawin opened the scoring when Jaxsen Wiebe got a shot off from the slot, beating Shawn Parkinson to make it 1-0 halfway through the period, and that’s how it sat after one, but the Mustangs outshot the Hawks 18-6 in the first.

Melfort was rewarded in the second period when Kenzie Arnold fired a one-timer past Declan Hobbs about six and a half minutes in. That was followed by a Justin Ball goal just two minutes after, his 54^th of the year to make it 2-1. The Hawks responded late in the frame as they were shorthanded. Walker Cote got a partial break and snuck one past Parkinson to bring it back tied after two periods.

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Mustangs Head Coach Trevor Blevins said his team was resilient.

“The first two periods we were the better team for sure,” Blevins said. “Third period, they came a little harder but I still thought we were okay. Then I think we had a couple factors against us tonight that I probably can’t really say, but it’s okay, we battled through it, we got through the adversity to get the two points.”

In that third, the Hawks pressed and got the lead 12 minutes in. Carson Erhardt got the goal, but the Mustangs kept coming. A powerplay for Melfort came late, and they capitalized. Colin Schmidt was able to beat Hobbs with about three minutes to play and things were back tied. That lead to overtime where nothing was solved, leading to a shootout.

In the skills competition, Josh Lester shot first for Nipawin while Justin Ball shot for Melfort. They both scored.

No goals were scored on either side for seven more rounds. In the ninth, Arik Breton shot for Nipawin but was stopped by Parkinson. That gave Jake Hobson a chance to play hero for Melfort, and he did just that, ripping a wrist shot passed Hobbs.

Blevins said getting the was massive in the grand scheme of things.

“Huge point in the shootout really,” Blevins said. “Guys don’t really understand what that would mean, you win tomorrow and we got our division, so it’s pretty important that we got the shootout point.”

Melfort now has a one-point lead on first place in the Sherwood Division against the Hawks with two games remaining each. The two battle one more time in the regular season on Saturday.