(Submitted photo/Cal Gratton)

By Ben Tompkins

Four in a Row

Shepherd’s first, Hutchinson’s four push Mustangs over Bruins in back-and-forth affair

Feb 29, 2024 | 12:49 PM

For the second straight game, the Melfort Mustangs put up seven goals against their opponent.

This time around, however, they nearly needed all seven to come away with a victory.

After walking away with a 7-0 win over the Melville Millionaires last Friday, the Mustangs welcomed the Estevan Bruins to town on Wednesday.

In a back-and-forth affair, Melfort again came out on top, this time by a score of 7-4, earning the 4-2 season-series edge.

The Stangs never trailed, as they scored in the first minute of each period, but again and again, it was the Bruins who answered right away, tying the game up at ones, twos, threes and fours.

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Finally, the Blue and Green broke through and took a multi-goal lead for the first time, when they ended the contest with three straight in the final 10 minutes of play.

One of those three, the seventh on the night for the Mustangs, was Austin Shepherd’s first career SJHL goal, coming on the powerplay.

“It feels unreal,” he told northeastNOW about finally breaking the goose egg and getting the monkey off his back. “I mean, it didn’t feel real at the start, but it’s kind of clicked in now, so yeah, it was good.”

Meanwhile, four of Melfort’s other goals came from just a single player. Aidyn Hutchinson had four goals on the night while adding a couple of helpers for a six-point performance.

Hutchinson has only failed once in his last nine appearances to register a point, as he’s collected 23 points in that span.

Another Stang who’s been on fire lately is Hutchinson’s linemate Clay Sleeva. Sleeva registered five points on Wednesday night with four assists and a goal.

Sleeva has only gone pointless once in his last 11 games, putting up 20 points in that span.

The pair has been a big reason why the Blue and Green have jumped back into third place in the SJHL standings, while also guaranteeing themselves home-ice advantage for at least the first round of the upcoming playoffs.

The club is now just one point behind the second-place Battlefords North Stars.

On the season, the organization is 2 and 0 against the defending champions and will see them twice this weekend when they head out west.

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

On X @BenTompkins_8