Melfort & Nipawin Split Home and Home

The Melfort Mustangs managed to come out of the weekend with another win under their belts after a tough couple games against the Nipawin Hawks. The home and home series began on Friday night when the Mustangs travelled to Nipawin to play the Hawks in their own barn. The travel may have set the Mustangs back on their heels as they came out slow and couldn’t seem to gain momentum the entire game. The final score ended up as 7-2 for the hometown Hawks, with Melfort’s goals coming in the second, by Miles Warkentine with assists to Dakota Boutin and Kalem Zary; and in the third, with Boutin capitalizing on a set-up from Matt Hermary and Jaxon Joseph.

Saturday night proved to be more fruitful for the Stangs, despite playing catch up for most of the game. Nipawin scored halfway through the first to put the Hawks up by one, and it would remain that way until near the end of the second period. With three minutes to go in the second, Zary tallied a power play goal, off a tip in from Boutin and Warkentine, but the equalizer would be short lived as Nipawin netted a go ahead goal five minutes later, near the start of the third. Melfort refused to back down though, and their diligence paid off when Reed Gunville got his first goal as a Mustang with less than two and a half minutes left in the final frame. Gunville’s goal came assisted from Warkentine and was enough for the Mustangs to force overtime. The extra frame resulted in Melfort tallying three shots on net to Nipawin’s one, but nothing was decided and a shootout was needed. Melfort’s first shooter proved to be the winner as Justin Ball laid down some fancy moves to beat Nipawin tender Sam-Jaxon Visscher and Plotnik was perfect against the three shooters he faced.

This split gives the Mustangs a record of 10-13-1-3 for a total of 24 points and 10th overall. The Hawks have had a comparitively light first half of their season, with only 24 games played, but a total of 29 points; good for seventh overall. The Mustangs will be back in action this Wednesday when they host the visiting Flin Flon Bombers, puck drop is 7:30 at the Northern Lights Palace.