The Melfort Mustangs and Nipawin Hawks rivalry lived up to its name as the two teams combined for 84 penalty minutes and 17 power plays and the Hawks skated away with a 4-0 win.
“All around it was an ugly game just with all the power play, penalty kill but we got the two points and at the end of the day that’s what matters,” said Doug Johnson, the Hawks’ head coach, about the March 4 game in Melfort.
The Hawks jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period, getting goals from Logan Casavant and Michael Grant and never looked back as Grant Baetsen added a second period goal and Keegan Milligan sealed the deal into an empty net in the third.
Despite jumping out to an early lead, Johnson admitted that it was far from their best period of hockey, noting they gave up a number of quality chances to the Mustangs.
The Mustangs put forth a solid effort, noted Trevor Blevins, the head coach, but they just could not get a better result.
“We came out hard in town and just again got down 1-0 and really they capitalized too on the power play and that was the difference,” said Blevins. “But 5 on 5, I thought territorially, it was a pretty decent hockey game both ways.”
Special teams played a big role in the outcome of the game as the Hawks finished the evening 2/10 on the power play, while the Mustangs struggled to generate much offense on their own, finishing 0/7 for the second straight night.
“Both games, our goalies were outstanding and just didn’t give any rebounds. Our D blocked out really well. Our forwards did a nice job eliminating the pass through the seams, the pass through the middle and every time we touched the puck it went 180 feet,” said Johnson of their penalty kill.
It has been a real struggle for the Mustangs on the power play as they have gone a combined 1/28 in the last five games and Blevins admitted he has started to see the players grip their stick too tight and are missing the net too much.
“We have to put all that behind us.”
