The Melfort Mustangs kept pace with the Nipawin Hawks for first place in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League standings with a 3-1 win over the Melville Millionaires at home.
The Jan. 31 win keeps the Mustangs within ten points of the Hawks, with a game in hand, heading into their massive home-and-home series starting Feb. 2 in Melfort.
Despite picking up the win, the contest did not get off to the best of starts for the home side as Tyler Millar scored his fourth of the year, on the power play, to give the Millionaires a 1-0 lead just 9:23 into the opening period.
The home side was able to respond before the end of the period as Colin Schmidt scored his 17th of the season, sending the game into the first period tied at one.
After a decent start that saw the Mustangs outshot 10-9 in the opening period, the home side rebounded in the second outshooting the visitors 10-7, and scoring the lone goal, as Loch Morrison scored his 17th of the year, sending the game into the third period with the Mustangs in front 2-1.
The third period was pretty quiet as neither team found the back of the net, until Rock Ruschkowski iced it for the Mustangs with 2:37 to play, scoring into an empty net.
Hunter Arps picked up the win in the Mustangs goal, turning aside 25 of the 26 shots he faced as the Mustangs outshot the Millionaires 29-26.
The Mustangs will return to action on Feb. 2 for the aforementioned front half of a home-and-home series with the rival Hawks.
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