Game Day: Melfort heads to La Ronge for a meeting with the last place Ice Wolves
The Melfort Mustangs(25-7-4-1) hit the road this afternoon as the head North looking to keep their winning streak alive. The Mustangs have won 5 straight dating back to December 16th. Tonight they meet the La Ronge Ice Wolves(7-27-0-2) for their 5th meeting of the season. Melfort has won all 4 previous affairs with La Ronge. The two clubs meet tomorrow in Melfort in what will be the final meeting of the 2017-18 season.
The Mustangs have enjoyed some success as of late. Wins over Kindersley, Humboldt, Estevan, Weyburn and Flin Flon have now opened a gap between the Mustangs and the teams chasing them for 4th in the SJHL Standings, currently 9 points up on Notre Dame. All while they look to run down the Nipawin Hawks who remain first in the Sher-Wood division and the SJHL. Thanks to a crazy 17-0-1-1 run the Hawks have taken over top spot in the SJHL. Melfort has been closing the gap recently, now just 6 points back, with a game in hand on Nipawin.
The La Ronge Ice Wolves have been stuck in the middle of another tough season. Currently last with just a 7-27-0-2 record the Ice Wolves are 12 points back of the final survivor series spot in the SJHL. Unless they can string together a bunch of wins they seem to be poised to miss the playoffs once again this season. However, one bright spot for the Ice Wolves may have to do with the amount of trades they made at the Jan 10th trade deadline.
The Swan Valley Stampeders trade Sam Harris and Futures to the La Ronge Ice Wolves in exchange for Daniel Chartrand.
La Ronge Ice Wolves trade Jason Bednarski to the Nipawin Hawks in exchange for a PDF.
La Ronge Ice Wolves trade Elijah Carels to the Waywayseecappo Wolverines for Marco Mazza.
La Ronge Ice Wolves trade Zac Gladu to the Drayton Valley Thunder in exchange for Tymen Edelkoort and a PDF.
La Ronge Ice Wolves obtain Damon Porter from the Calgary Mustangs in exchange for a PDF.
La Ronge Ice Wolves trade Tymen Edelkoort to the Dryden Ice Dogs in exchange for a PDF.
Yorkton Terriers trade Ben McLennan to the La Ronge Ice Wolves.
As you can see the Wolves made 7 trades on January 10th. They moved out 5 players and brought in 5 more. It is still unknown how many of those 5 will play this weekend against Melfort.
Leading Scorers:
Melfort:
Loch Morrison 12G, 28A- 40P
Kalem Zary 7G, 24A- 31P
Justin Ball 14G, 14A- 28P
Carson Albrecht 14G, 12A- 26P
Reed Gunville 7G, 19A- 26P
Colin Schmidt 14G, 10A- 24P
Kayle Tosh 7G, 17A- 24P
La Ronge:
Connor Smith 12G, 6A- 18P
Tanner Brewster 8G, 8A- 16P
Matthew Perkins 9G, 6A- 15P
Antonio Di Paolo 4G, 10A- 14P
Drayton ThunderChief 5G, 7A- 12P
Trey Doell 1G, 10A- 11P
Tonight’s game is the beginning of a home and home between the Mustangs and Ice Wolves. The two clubs meet in Melfort tomorrow night. Game time tonight is 7:30pm from La Ronge. There will be no Mustang broadcast on CK750.