The Mustangs swarm goalie Noah Giesbrecht after winning Game 6 of the semi-finals in Estevan on April 7, punching their ticket to the finals. (Mat Barrett/northeastNOW Staff)

By Mat Barrett

Year in Review

Sports Year in Review: Mustangs memorable run to SJHL Finals

Dec 25, 2019 | 12:00 PM

northeastNOW is taking a look back at the biggest and most interesting sports stories of 2019, as selected by our sports reporters Mat Barrett and Aaron Schulze:

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The Melfort Mustangs trip to the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) Final makes our list of Top Stories of 2019.

While the Mustangs didn’t end up winning their fifth title in team history, their trip to the finals was one for the record books.

Tony Degerness was the colour commentator for a large portion of the Mustangs season and said it was a perfect storm for the team.

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“The boys were probably playing some of their best hockey,” he said. “It just kind of seemed that everybody gelled and came together at the right time.

To get the full picture of the Mustangs run to the final, you have to start on the Jan. 10 trade deadline. Prior to that, the Mustangs had added to their group with trades to bring in Kenzie Arnold, Marshall Skapski and others, but the final day to make trades brought in two major pieces for Melfort. Head Coach and General Manager Trevor Blevins traded for Noah Giesbrecht out of the OCN Blizzard in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League (MJHL), and George King out of Dauphin in the same league.

King was a veteran add that slid in with Arnold and Colin Schmidt to form one of the more formidable second lines in the league at that point.

Giesbrecht on the other hand came in and was a star between the pipes, forming a tremendous tandem with Shawn Parkinson.

“For the Mustangs, it was a dynamic duo that Trevor could put in, either one of them on any night and expect good results,” Degerness said.

After being a seventh place team at one point in the regular season, the Mustangs went on to finish with the third best record in the SJHL but were fourth in playoff positioning. Melfort scored the second most goals and had the best powerplay at the end of the regular season.

The Mustangs squad also featured plenty of star power with Justin Ball and Carson Albrecht finishing first and second in SJHL scoring. Ball had 54 goals and 103 points to win Most Valuable Player, while Albrecht had 89 points and was named RBC Player of the Year. Albrecht is now honing his craft at the University of North Dakota in the NCAA, while Ball is with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies hockey team.

The Kindersley Klippers stood in the Mustangs way in the first round of playoffs. It was a physical series, but ultimately the Mustangs dumped the Klippers in five games. It was almost a sweep, but a tremendous performance by Klippers goalie Justen Close in game four gave Kindersley life.

After that it was the Estevan Bruins in the semi-final for the Mustangs. The cards seemed to be stacked against Melfort in the series as they hadn’t beat the Bruins once in their four regular season meetings. In that series, the home team had won the first five games of the series, meaning the Mustangs had a chance to close things out with a win in game six, in Estevan on April 7. The game didn’t go quite as planned to begin with for the Mustangs as they were down 2-0 just 28 minutes into the hockey game, but a goal from Colin Schmidt cut the lead to one with about five to play in the second.

That was followed by a goal by Alex Rondeau with about two-and-a-half left in frame and all of a sudden things were tied.

Degerness said there was a big moment in the third period that really resonates with him.

“The big save that Giesbrecht had made that kind of came out of nowhere that we had sent into TSN for a highlight,” he said. “Kind of we thought was a highlight of the year was a big turning point for the Mustangs.”

That save was made in the third period with the game still tied. It seemed to jump the Mustangs as they only had three shots in the period in total. Justin Ball then took over with less than four minutes to play and scored his sixth of the playoffs for what was the ultimate game winner.

Degerness added that the come-from-behind win really put the whole season into one game for the Mustangs.

“How many times they started a game from behind and always kind of faced that adversity and came back and won big hockey games,” he said. “And really I think that was a key testament to the work ethic that Trevor [Blevins] had instilled in those guys, and it got them all the way to the final.”

It ended up being the Battlefords North Stars who would meet the Mustangs in their third final in five seasons. The North Stars were just one season removed from their title in 2017. Ultimately, the Mustangs fell in five games, but not without a fight. A game four overtime loss for Melfort put them down 3-1 in the series heading back to Battlefords and they weren’t able to mount a comeback.

The Mustangs (white) and North Stars (black) shake hands after game five of the SJHL Finals. (Aaron Schulze/northeastNOW Staff)

Being a Melfort native himself, Degerness has seen his fair share of Melfort Mustangs hockey teams and he thinks that team is one of the greats.

“The 2018/2019 hockey team, I would say, ranks top three,” Degerness said. “In my opinion.”

The 2019/2020 version of the Mustangs currently sit fifth in the SJHL with a 21-12-2-1, good for 45 points. They have three games in hand on Yorkton for third place.

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mat.barrett@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @matbarrett6