Kenzie Arnold (left) and Jake Hobson (right) look on after winning in La Ronge on Tuesday night. (Mat Barrett/northeastNOW Staff)

By Mat Barrett

Mustangs First Win

Mustangs offense breaks out in La Ronge for first win of season

Sep 18, 2019 | 9:37 AM

The Melfort Mustangs finally scored a goal in a 2019/2020 Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League regular season contest and they now have their first win as well.

The Mustangs defeated the La Ronge Ice Wolves on Tuesday, Sept. 18 in La Ronge to improve to 1-2-0-0 on the season.

“We were happy with the bounceback for sure,” said Assistant Coach Trevor Logan. “And just to see the guys compete and get our first one here, that’s big.”

The first period didn’t quite start as planned for the Mustangs as they allowed the first goal once again. Aaron Greyeyes scored for La Ronge at the 6:49 mark of the period. However, Melfort battled back and scored their first goal of the game, and the season courtesy of Kenzie Arnold who banged in a rebound to tie the game at 1-1. But, just one minute after Arnold tied it, Rowan Barnes scored for La Ronge to regain the lead for the home squad. The Ice Wolves added one more in the frame, courtesy of Kyle Ford’s third of the season and it was 3-1 by the 17:15 mark of the first period. Melfort got one back before the buzzer as Luc Marleau made a nice move in front of the net for his first SJHL goal to make it 3-2.

That goal may have given the Mustangs the jump they so desperately needed as they came out guns ablazing in the second frame. Lucas Ochitwa notched his first SJHL goal at the 7:13 mark on the powerplay to tie the game. Then the Mustangs started to run away, partially thanks to a seven minute powerplay, two minutes of which was a five-on-three. Alex Rodneau tallied his first of the season on that powerplay to give the Mustangs their first lead of the season. Zach Anderson got in on the action at the 17:45 mark to make it 5-3 as the Mustangs were up after two.

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“The guys kept battling hard through a little bit of adversity right off the bat,” Logan told northeastNOW. “We put some pucks on net, and finally got a few to go, I think once we got the pucks to go, we had a little bit of confidence.”

The Mustangs were able to lock things down in the third, even with a flurry of pressure from La Ronge, thanks in large part to a few Mustang penalties late. Rondeau scored into the empty net to make it 6-3 with about a minute and a half to go, but Daylon Mannon scored for La Ronge to bring it to 6-4 with just seconds on the clock.

Rondeau and Kenzie Arnold each had three points in the win for Melfort while Mannon led the way for La Ronge with that goal and three assists as well.

Melfort will match up next with the Melville Millionaires on Friday, Sept. 20 in Melville. You can hear that game on Saskatchewan’s New Beach Radio.

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mat.barrett@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @matbarrett6