The Melfort Mustangs continued their early season mastery of the Nipawin Hawks, as they won their third straight contest over the Hawks to start the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League season, 3-2 in a shootout in Nipawin.
The Sept. 29 contest was far from the Mustangs’ best, said Trevor Blevins, the head coach, who said they started too soft.
“It gradually got better as the game went on but Nipawin came out hard, they always do at home and we got into some penalty trouble too in the second period,” noted Blevins.
“Nipawin never quits but to get the shootout win is okay. Even though maybe we didn’t quite deserve the win we found a way to win, which is important too in those nights.”
After a scoreless first period, the Hawks found the scoresheet first in the second period as Bryson Cecconi scored his second goal in as many games to put the Hawks in front.
The lead did not last long however, as Loch Morrison tied the game on the power play, and before the period was out Taylor Schmidt scored his first career SJHL goal to give the Mustangs a 2-1 lead heading into the third.
Michael Grant scored his team high seventh of the year with less than seven minutes remaining in the game to send the game into overtime.
After a scoreless overtime the game went to a shootout.
The Mustangs won in the shootout thanks to misses by Keillan Olson and Caleb Paisley of the Hawks, and goals by Justin Ball and Colin Schmidt.
Despite the Mustangs having a number of things going against them including playing on the road, it being their third in four nights, and not playing their best hockey, he was pleased to see the team continue to battle, even after giving up the tying goal.
“We didn’t give up too much momentum in that situation. I really thought we saw a little bit of a push at the end of the game. We found a way to rebound and get through those situations.”
Evan Plotnik picked up his seventh win of the season in the Mustangs goal turning aside 34 of the 36 shots he faced.
“[Plotnik] played extraordinarily well. To me he was the difference in the game,” noted Doug Johnson, the Hawks’ head coach.
While Johnson credited Plotnik for his great game, he noted the Hawks also shot themselves in the foot.
“We had probably four or five back door plays where we had open nets and just didn’t finish, so all of a sudden if we finish on one of those or two of those it’s a totally different game.”
Jake Anthony was charged with the loss in the Hawks goal despite kicking aside 23 of the 25 shots he faced.
Despite falling to the Mustangs, Johnson was pleased with how the Hawks were able to play.
“I thought we outchanced them, I thought 5-on-5 we did a nice job, I wish our power play could have put one in the back of the net but we had chances and sometimes the chances don’t go in,” he said. “All-in-all you hate losing, it’s never a good feeling but I thought for the most part we did a nice job of giving ourselves a chance.”
