The Mustangs (blue) and Hawks (white) meet in a home and home on Friday and Saturday. (Facebook/Broad Leaf Media)

By Mat Barrett

Rivalry Weekend

Mustangs and Hawks to meet in home and home before holiday break

Dec 20, 2019 | 9:00 AM

Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League fans in the northeast are going to get an early Christmas gift this weekend.

The Melfort Mustangs and Nipawin Hawks meet in a home and home on Dec. 20 and 21 before both clubs head on their Christmas breaks that extend into the New Year.

Both teams come into the contest on minor losing skids with the Mustangs dropping back-to-back contests on the weekend. Assistant Coach Trevor Logan said with a few injuries, and some new players, they’re still building as the season progresses.

“We’re going to have to figure it out eventually and it’s going to come,” Logan told northeastNOW. “We know where we want to be in March. Obviously we want to put ourselves into a good position going into the playoffs, and the highest seed as we can. But we believe that at the end of the day we just have to be prepared at the end of the season heading into playoffs.”

Currently, the Mustangs sit with a 20-11-2-1 record, good for 43 points on the season. They’re two points back of third place Yorkton who has played three more game than the Mustangs. Within the Sherwood Division, Melfort is seven points back of Flin Flon for first.

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Up North in Nipawin, they have lost four games in a row since beating Yorkton 4-1 on Dec. 6. Overall, the Hawks are 17-5-2-0 on the season, which sits them and 36 points and in seventh place in the SJHL. While things haven’t gone as planned for the Hawks, Head Coach Doug Johnson sees some positives in his group.

“To me the bright spot is we have a lot of talent on the team, we’re underperforming,” he said. “So that means there’s upside there.”

Since the last time the Mustangs and Hawks played, both teams have some new faces. Nipawin has added forwards Caden Benson and Dawson McKenzie via trade, and goaltender Dalton Dosch as well. On the Mustangs side, forwards Tian Rask and Kyle Bosch were added, and defenceman Ryan MacLean was also brought in along with Isaac Alvarado.

Nipawin has won three of the previous four meetings this season against Melfort which included back-to-back 3-0 wins in the season opening home and home series in September. The Hawks have scored 10 times in those two games, while the Mustangs have only tickled the twine six times, but five of them came in their only win on Oct. 25 at home.

Johnson said with his team’s recent slide, he expects his group to have a bit more edge.

“Expecting that we play pretty pissed off, and that we play hungry,” he said. “And make sure we earn the right to have a good holiday break.”

Meanwhile, in Melfort, Logan said this weekend comes at a good time for the Mustangs.

“I think that emotion will be good,” he said. “And back-to-back in the two rinks you always get lots of good fans out so I think the guys will be ready on both sides of the equation there.”

Friday night, the teams meet in Melfort at the Northern Lights Palace while the series shifts to Nipawin and Centennial Arena on Saturday. If you can’t make it to the rink, both games will be on Saskatchewan’s New Beach Radio with the pre-game show at 7:15 p.m. on both nights.

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mat.barrett@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @matbarrett6