(Ben Tompkins/northeastNOW)

By Ben Tompkins

No longer unbeaten

Klippers beat Mustangs for Melfort’s first loss of the season

Oct 15, 2023 | 5:38 PM

The Melfort Mustangs failed to add to their perfect record on Saturday, as the Kindersley Klippers gave them their first loss of the 2023/24 SJHL season.

After registering one of their best first periods of the year on Friday, the Mustangs had their worst of the season on Saturday, as the Klippers completely flipped the script.

Kindersley led 3-0 after 20 minutes of action, as Melfort netminder James Venne was pulled just over 14 minutes into the hockey game, after stopping just eight of 11 shots.

The Stangs seemed rejuvenated in the second period, however, as they scored three times themselves, sending the game into the third period all square.

That seemed to be all the Blue and Green had in the tank though, as the Klippers would score twice in the third, before Melfort added their fourth goal too little too late, as just eight seconds remained on the clock when they cut the deficit back to one.

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“You come out flat and that’s not a very good start, our game plan was to come out hard and heavy because we knew they were going to come out heavy. We got down three nothing and then we were lucky to have power plays but that’s not good enough,” said Mustang’s assistant coach, Tye Scherger.

“We had lots of momentum going and then a couple of bounces didn’t go our way and then we were back down and we had to get back in the trenches. We didn’t come out on top, which comes with not playing a full 60.”

The club’s backup goalie, Kristan Coombs got his first regular-season action of his SJHL career, stopping 14 of 16 in nearly 43 minutes of play in relief.

Now, the Mustangs will have to regroup and start a new winning streak as they head back home for a game on Wednesday (Oct. 18) at the Northern Lights Palace.

“Gonna hit the reset button, get back to Melfort, get back to work, get back to the systems, we’re gonna work hard and practice and we’ll be ready for Wednesday,” added Scherger.

The Stangs, now 7 and 1 on the season, will welcome the 5 and 4 Battlefords North Stars to Melfort, for the two organizations’ first meeting since last year’s postseason.

Puck drop is slated for 7:30 p.m.

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter @BenTompkins_8