(Mat Barrett/northeastNOW Staff)

By Mat Barrett

Mustangs to Finals

Giesbrecht guides Mustangs to SJHL finals

Apr 8, 2019 | 9:37 AM

The Melfort Mustangs are on their way to the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) Finals.

The Mustangs fell behind early in Sunday’s game at Affinity Place in Estevan, but came back dramatically to win 3-2 and take the best-of-seven series in six games.

It didn’t take long for the Estevan Bruins to score first on home ice, 1:12 to be exact, as an Aigne McGeady-Bruce shot from the point found its way past Noah Giesbrecht to make it 1-0. The Mustangs seemed to be on their heels in the first period, tallying only five shots in the frame to Estevan’s 12.

The second period also started in the Bruins’ favour as they seemed to be the better team. Kade McMillan made it 2-0 around the seven minute mark, and at that point Melfort seemed deflated.

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However, things seemed to change after the media timeout. With less than six minutes to go in the period, Colin Schmidt got a nice shot off to beat Grant Boldt, cutting the lead in half. That was followed by a seeing-eye shot from Alex Rondeau at the point, also beating Boldt. All of a sudden, the game was flipped on its head after the second period.

In the third, if it wasn’t already the Noah Giesbrecht show, it was now. Giesbrecht stopped 27 of 29 through the first 40 minutes. Estevan seemed to have all of the momentum, a lengthy powerplay that lasted around five minutes for the Bruins was unsuccessful. Late in the man advantage, a rebound came to the left wing circle, and the Bruin forward had Giesbrecht dead to rights, that was until the 19-year-old goalie sprawled across the crease, stopping the shot with his stick in a highlight-reel-save that changed the course of the game.

Head Coach Trevor Blevins was almost speechless when talking about the save.

“It’s in,” Blevins said. “It was a wide open net, I thought it was in for sure. I can’t believe he got there.”

Then, with less than four minutes to play, Justin Ball got some speed and burst down the left wing, beating the Bruin defender wide, and sticking a backhand past Boldt, giving the Mustangs the 3-2 lead. Estevan pressured hard, but could not beat the wall that was Noah Giesbrecht who stopped 14 shots in the third period, and at least eight of them were top-notch chances.

Blevins said Giesbrecht was tremendous, but the whole team really stepped up.

“It is what it is, [Giesbrecht] was great,” He said. “You need your great goaltending to get it done. I don’t know if we were the better team tonight but we had a lot of character and found a way to get it done.”

Melfort was outshot 41-21 in the hockey game, and only had three recorded shots in the third period.

(Mat Barrett/northeastNOW Staff)

This will be the Mustangs’ third trip to the finals in the last five seasons. They won the Canalta Cup in their last two appearances (2015 & 2016).

The Battlefords North Stars await the Mustangs.

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mat.barrett@jpbg.ca