Mustangs welcome Mils after Weekend Off
The Melfort Mustangs are back from a weekend off with a meeting with the Melville Millionaires tonight at the Palace! It is the second meeting of the season as Melfort visited Melville way back on Sept 20th 2019. The Mustangs came away with a 6-3 win that night. Ryley Lanthier led the way with 3 points and Tanner Martin picked up the win in net. The Mils and Mustangs will meet two more times following tonight, on Nov 17th in Melville and Feb 15th in Melfort.
The Melfort Mustangs have been one of the hottest teams in the SJHL of late. Two straight wins over Flin Flon and a 7-2-0-1 record over their last 10 have vaulted the team into 2nd place in the SJHL Standings. The week kicked off for the Mustangs with a 4-1 win in Flin Flon on Tuesday. Greg Parker led the offence that night with a goal and an assist. Nine other Mustangs got on the scoresheet with a single point. Tanner Martin was great in net making 17 of 18 saves on the night, picking up his fourth win of the season. The home and home wrapped up on Thursday with a 4-3 Melfort win in OT. Ryley Lanthier got the OT winner with a great shot on a 2 on 1 with Colton Schell. Colby Brett scored his first SJHL goal, and added an assist in the win. Kenzie Arnold picked up a goal and an assist and 8 more Mustangs pitched in with a point each. Shawn Parkinson got the win on Thursday making 39 saves on 42 shots.
The Melville Millionaires jumped out to a 2-0-1 start to the season but have fallen since early September. The Mils are now 4-12-2-2 and sit last in the SJHL with 12 points. They’re currently riding an 8 game losing streak but made a big trade last week to shake the makeup of their team. The Mils dealt James Philpott and Booker Chacalias to the La Ronge Ice Wolves for Zach Bannister and Dylan Thackeray. Philpott and Chacalias had great starts in La Ronge with multi point games right off the bat. But Bannister and Thackeray have come along for the Mils as well, Bannister put up four points in his two most recent outing for the Mils as he gets accustomed to his new team. He scored 28 Goals and 42 Assists last year as he’s a rare 70 point player to return to the SJHL. Bannister completes a very solid trio for the Mils up front as Luke Spadafora(28 Points), Zach Bannister(19 Points) and Nic Porterfield(18 Points) have combined for 65 points. Thackeray was a nice addition for the Mils as he now has 4 points in 3 games in Melville, he has hit the scoresheet in all 3 games with Melville.
Despite the second placed Mustangs and twelfth placed Millionaires anything can happen in the SJHL and we’ve seen it this year. Puck drops tonight at the Northern Lights Palace at 7:30pm. There will be no local radio broadcast tonight! Following tonight the Mustangs host the first placed Battleford North Stars on Friday.
Photo Credit: Broad Leaf Media