(Mat Barrett/northeastNOW Staff)

By Mat Barrett

Mustangs Exact Revenge

Lopez leads Mustangs to revenge win over Broncos

Oct 6, 2019 | 9:15 AM

If you didn’t know the name ‘Marco Lopez’ prior to the Melfort Mustangs and Humboldt Broncos game on Saturday, Oct. 5 in Humboldt, you do now.

The 18-year-old rookie had himself a night, scoring four times in a Mustangs 7-4 win after the Broncos beat Melfort 5-4 in overtime the night prior in Melfort. Head Coach Trevor Blevins said it was a great effort all around after a tough first period and a tough game the night prior.

“A real good effort by everybody,” Blevins said. “Everybody in the dressing room bucked up and you can’t give any other credit than to the guys in the room, they did a great job.”

The first period didn’t go as planned for the Mustangs as they gave up two goals to the Broncos. Jackson Bohan scored seven minutes in and Logan Foster added a powerplay goal with under three minutes to play in the period to give Humboldt a 2-0 lead after the first period.

In the second, Kenzie Arnold scored a powerplay marker for Melfort to be back within one, but Humboldt restored the lead just minutes later to make it 3-1 courtesy of Justin Jamer finishing a two-on-one. However, the Mustangs took over. Marco Lopez scored his first of the night just 34 seconds after Jamer’s goal and the train began to roll for Melfort. Nolan Kadachuk scored almost nine minutes in, and Lopez added his second of the game with just over two minutes left in the period to give Melfort the 4-3 lead all of a sudden.

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Blevins said his team bounced back well.

“Unbelievable recovery,” he said. “I thought we were the harder team for the last 40 minutes, which was very important. Typically when that happens, you earn your bounces and you earn your breaks.”

The pedal stayed down for Melfort in the third as Lopez notched his hat-trick just over five minutes in, Zack Smith scored about two minutes after, and Lopez scored his fourth of the evening with about six minutes to play to make it 7-3. Kade Olsen added one for Humboldt on the powerplay with just seconds remaining to make it 7-4.

With the big game from Lopez, the young Calgary born forward is drawing comparisons to last seasons Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League MVP, and former Mustang Justin Ball.

“He does remind me of him,” Blevins told northeastNOW. “Just a little bit of the skating, and then the shot, he’s got a quick release obviously, we can see that today. He’s pretty nifty in tight too and he’s strong on pucks.”

With his four goals on Saturday night, Lopez now has seven goals in 10 games as a Mustangs rookie. (Mat Barrett/northeastNOW Staff)

Blevins added that he’s still a work in progress, but he’s excited to see how the young core that includes Lopez develops.

Melfort improves to 7-2-2-0 with the win and are back on the ice on Wednesday, Oct. 9 when the Battlefords North Stars come to town.

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mat.barrett@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @matbarrett6