A poor four-minute stretch of hockey sunk the Melfort Mustangs as they fell 7-1 in Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League action at home to the Weyburn Red Wings.
The Mustangs gave up four goals in those four minutes and could never recover on Oct. 24.
“Our play started to slip. We had an increase in turnovers and we got loose defensively and they took advantage rather quickly. We couldn’t regroup in the moment and really that was the difference was basically we didn’t have a great effort for that short time and they took advantage,” lamented head coach Trevor Blevins about that four minute stretch.
The Mustangs actually started the game well outshooting the Red Wings 12-4, but could not get a goal as the game hit the first intermission tied at 0.
Despite failing to score, Blevins was pleased with his teams’ start, especially considering starts had been a concern for the Mustangs coming in.
“We really came out hard but didn’t get rewarded.”
The Red Wings drew first blood just 29 seconds into the first period.
After Justin Ball scored his fifth of the year at 13:07 to tie the game, the Red Wings took over scoring at 14:43, 15:22, 15:41, and 18:32.
After the goal scoring barrage was finally over for the Red Wings, they took a 5-1 lead into the third period.
The Red Wings added two more goals to make the final 7-1.
Aside from giving up four goals in four minutes, the Mustangs also struggled on the penalty kill, where they finished the night giving up three power play goals, which came down to not being aggressive enough, noted Blevins.
“We just hesitated, missed our assignments. We weren’t real assertive. We do run a high pressure, active penalty kill so if we hesitate at all, if one person hesitates it can go south in a hurry and that’s what happened.”
Evan Plotnik was charged with the loss in the Mustangs goal as he gave up five goals on 22 shots, before being pulled to start the third period.
Hunter Arps came on in relief of Plotnik and turned aside nine of the 11 shots he faced as the two teams finished tied in shots at 33 apiece.
