(Ben Tompkins/northeastNOW)

By Ben Tompkins

11th Straight at Home

Mustangs narrowly avoid late third-period collapse in first leg of home and home against Hounds

Dec 2, 2023 | 12:43 PM

The Melfort Mustangs had a much better start on Friday night, but it was very nearly their horrendous finish that cost them the game.

The Mustangs narrowly defeated the Notre Dame Hounds, 5-4, despite holding a 5-1 lead with just 13 minutes to go in the third.

While Melfort will take their 11th straight win at home over the Hounds (last loss was just over six years ago now) they know they have to be better at finishing the game.

“I think sometimes our collapse needs to be better,” said Stangs’ netminder, Kristian Coombs. “If we played like our first two periods in the third, we would have been golden, so we just got to keep a full 60 now.”

Coombs acquired his first career home win with the victory, despite coming out of the game with just less than 13 minutes remaining in the game.

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After Notre Dame scored their second goal, to make it 5-2, Coombs suffered full leg cramps (dehydration) and couldn’t get up.

Ultimately, he was fine, but it forced James Venne to come in cold, as he gave up goals on the first two shots he faced, which is why the game ended up being so close in the end.

“I think definitely me going down kinda didn’t help everything,” Coombs explained about the late-game momentum shift.

“It felt good to get my first win at home though, it always feels good to win and the boys really stepped it up a notch in that second period (and early third) to get all those goals, so it’s nice to see that.”

Both clubs will now travel to Wilcox for the second game of the home and home set.

The Blue and Green will have the opportunity to continue their winning ways against the bottom-ranked team in the SJHL, becoming 4 and 0 against them, this season.

“We got to come in ready have a good start and just play a full 60… personally, I think that the first 10 minutes of a hockey game are the most important, so that’s definitely something that we want to have for sure,” Coombs told northeastNOW.

“They can chirp us all they want, but we kind of got the scores to back it up, so that’s all that matters,” he added, when speaking of the Stangs’ recent dominance over Notre Dame.

Saturday’s contest at the Duncan McNeil Arena begins at 7:30 p.m. and will be broadcast on 105 CJVR.

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

On X @BenTompkins_8