By Mat Barrett

Mustangs back to winning ways

Dec 8, 2018 | 11:06 AM

The Melfort Mustangs losing streak did not last long in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.

They gathered a 3-1 win Friday in Melville over the Millionaires, stopping their mini two game losing skid from last weekend.

Melfort got an early powerplay just 15 seconds into the first period, but Melville seemed to have the momentum. The Millionaires would get on the board first when Luke Nkwama was left wide open in the slot for his third tally of the season. The Mustangs would get a few chances, but were down on the score clock 10-6.

In the second period, the Mustangs would turn it on, getting a whole ton of chances, and finally capitalized at the 13:10 mark of the frame when Boedy Donald scored his second goal of the season with a wrist shot from the point. Then, with five seconds left in the frame, the Mustangs were swarming in the Millionaire end. Colin Schmidt tried the wraparound, but missed. That was followed up by Kenzie Arnold who tried a wraparound of his own. The puck bounced off a Millionaires skate in front, and through the five hole of Millionaire netminder Colby Entz.

Melfort continued to put the pedal to the metal in the third period, not giving Melville a whole lot of time in the offensive zone. At the 8:26 mark, Justin Ball fired a shot from the point, hitting the post, and then off the skate of Entz, trickling into the net, giving the Mustangs the 3-1 lead. Melville pressed late, but a four-minute high sticking penalty to Luke Spadafora with less than three minutes to play dwindled the Millionaires chances of the comeback.

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With Justin Balls 30th goal of the season, he extended his goal scoring streak to ten games, while also extending his enormous point streak to 28 games overall. He had an assist on the first Mustang goal of the night.

Assistant coach Dan Meyers said the game seemed to be a progressive climb up the mountain, leading to the victory.

“We needed this for confidence a little bit.” Meyers said. “You could tell the boys were a little tight at the beginning of the game and that’s how we played in the first period, and we got better in the second, and then in the third we played like we can. We need to get that going on this next stretch because we’ve got some tough teams we’re going to face.”

The Mustangs are back in action on Tuesday as they visit the Yorkton Terriers. That will be followed up by a weekend home and home with the Humboldt Broncos (Dec 15 and 16), then a home and home with the Nipawin Hawks (Dec 21 and 22) to close out the year.

mat.barrett@jpbg.ca