(Mat Barrett/Melfort Mustangs)

By Mat Barrett

Shootout Woes

Mustangs relinquish lead late, fall to Klippers

Feb 6, 2022 | 1:28 PM

The Melfort Mustangs have returned home with just a single point from their western road swing this weekend.

After a 5-3 loss to Battlefords on Friday, the Mustangs fell 4-3 in a shootout to the Kindersley Klippers on Saturday, Feb. 5.

After Friday night’s game, the team said they wanted a better start in Kindersley, and that’s what they got. Marco Lopez opened the scoring at the 6:26 mark of the first period. Then it was former Klipper captain Mark Snarr who scored his first as a Mustang to make it 2-0 before 10 minutes had elapsed in the first.

“We had a great start tonight,” said Mustangs’ assistant coach Dan Meyers. “Everybody came out firing, we were excited to get playing, did a little bit of line juggling and it was a great start.”

Kindersley would slowly make their way back as Carson Baylis scored late in the second period, and Aidan Bangs scored halfway through the third to bring the game back to square.

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Dawson Leroux scored for Melfort to give them the lead back with just over two minutes left. However, Kindersley would not go down without a fight. The Klippers had thought they tied the game with just over a minute left, but it was disallowed due to a high stick. Although a goal would be allowed with just under a minute to play as Noah Lindsay tied the game, forcing overtime.

Melfort had at least three excellent chances in the extra frame, two by Trenton Curtis, but couldn’t beat Matt Pesenti who stopped 25 of 28 shots in the contest.

In the shootout, Lopez, Curtis Hammond, and Ben Tkachuk all missed for Melfort while Lindsay got the game-winner for the Klippers.

The loss is Melfort’s seventh in their last nine games, and Meyers said it is frustrating, but they’ll have to get back to work.

“I feel like we’ve lost a bit of swagger,” he said. “Sounds like a funny word, but we started tonight and you could tell the boys had some swag but it just didn’t come through so we’ve just got to keep pushing right now.”

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mat.barrett@melfortmustangs.com

On Twitter: @matbarrett6