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By Ben Tompkins

Winning horse

Mustangs riding four-game win streak as new year approaches

Dec 14, 2021 | 5:52 PM

The Melfort Mustangs are just three games away from the Christmas break, and have begun the second half of their schedule by winning their last four games.

The Mustangs, who began the second half of their season last Friday, Dec. 10, in an overtime win against the Battlefords North Stars, will now be playing their 32nd game of a total 58 against the Millionaires tonight in Melville.

Melfort is currently tied for fourth in the SJHL with those very same North Stars, as they hold a record of 17-9-1-4, good for a total of 39 points.

Head coach and general manager Trevor Blevins told northeastNOW he’s very happy with the makeup of his club and knows they have lots to build on for the rest of the season.

“We definitely like our group, we like our work ethic and attitude and what we bring to the rink every day,” he said. “We certainly like our lineup, our leadership has been excellent, the young guys stepping in have been great and the new acquisitions we made have been fitting in excellent. We’ve got some great chemistry, on and off the ice and we got something to build on.”

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Blevins said, however, there are always improvements that can be made, especially when it comes to consistency.

“We obviously want to improve every day and we feel like we can climb up the standings a little bit here and that will be the goal,” he said. “One of the things I feel we need to work on though is our consistency against the opponents we’re playing. There have been instances in-game or certain nights where we fall off being consistent or close to it and that’s something we need to get better at each night and shift by shift.”

And for a team that’s had ups and downs this season, Blevins explained those are inevitable and situational, however, the downs can be limited and the ups can be expanded on.

“We had some big wins to start the season but it was also situational too, with our schedule and what was happening,” he said. “We then had some injuries and dropped some points that we should’ve had, so we just have to make sure we clean that up going into and continuing after the break.”

That Christmas break will be a welcome sign for this club, according to Blevins, however, it’s still a few days away as there are still some games to be played.

“The break will be huge for everyone but as far as this week, we got six big points we need to get after and it starts tonight against Melville,” he said. “With decent efforts, we feel we have a chance at all six, so our goal is to finish strong heading into the break, so we have some momentum coming back.

And the Mustangs will look to carry that momentum for the rest of the year, as they look to get back to the Canalta Cup final, a place they were the last time a full SJHL regular season was played (2018-19).

According to Blevins, the team won’t be able to take much from that experience, especially considering how different their roster is now.

“It’s a little tough because we don’t have a player from that team playing here, so it’s not much to draw on that way but we can definitely prepare the team the best we can for those situations and what’s coming up,” he said. “That’s always the key, is making sure everyone is contributing and developing here so that when we get into playoff time and there are guys in and out of the lineup, everyone is going to be ready and confident and able to contribute each day. Our goal here is to develop every player individually and hopefully, that always brings team success down the road.”

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter @BenTompkins_8