After becoming the first team to repeat as Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League champions in almost a decade, the Melfort Mustangs punched their spot in their second straight Centennial Cup National Junior “A” Hockey Championships, with some unfinished business on their mind.
Last season, the Mustangs and some 16 players suffered a heartbreaking 1-0 defeat at the hands of the Collingwood Blues. They came up just a couple of goals short of the SJHL’s first National title since the Yorkton Terriers won it in 2014.
“We just have to take some of the experience we gained last year and take it one game at a time and if we get the opportunity to get to that position again that we know how this time to get over that hump,” Mustangs Head Coach & General Manager Trevor Blevins told the SportsCage on Thursday.
The Mustangs, the last team to repeat as league champions in 2015 & 2016, captured the league title with a 3-0 win over the Weyburn Red Wings on Sunday night in Game 5 to finish off the five-game Canterra Seeds Cup win.
“We’ve just been able to bounce back so quickly if we got punched in the mouth or knocked down, we came back hard with a vengeance and I don’t think that’s going to change going forward.”
Melfort will compete in a pool with the Rockland Nationals, Edmundston Blizzard, Valleyfield Braves, and the host and AJHL champion Calgary Canucks, who they’ll meet in their tournament opener this Thursday, May 8th at 7:30 PM.
The 2025 Centennial Cup runs from May 8th to May 18th at the Max Bell Centre in Calgary, Alberta.
