Weekend Rivalry! Mustangs and Hawks open a home and home!
The Melfort Mustangs enter the final week of the regular season with a trio of contests in the next 4 days. Tonight the Mustangs open a home and home with the Nipawin Hawks at the cage. They of course return to Melfort for the rematch tomorrow. Following the annual awards banquet on Sunday the team hosts the Flin Flon Bombers for the final regular season game on Monday.
As expected the final playoff spots will be determined this week as nothing is locked in at the moment, except that Battlefords will finish #1 and Flin Flon will finish #2. Outside of that all 8 playoff teams are in, with the order to be determined!
The Mustangs and Hawks meet for the 9th and 10th times of the regular season, which of course is the final meetings of the season. The Hawks lead the series 5 games 3 with the final two this weekend.
Head to Head Season Series
Sept 13 2019 Melfort – 0 @ Nipawin – 3
Sept 14 2019 Nipawin – 3 @ Melfort – 0
Oct 25 2019 Nipawin – 2 @ Melfort – 5
Oct 26 2019 Melfort – 1 @ Nipawin – 2
Dec 20 2019 Nipawin – 2 @ Melfort – 5
Dec 21 2019 Melfort – 0 @ Nipawin – 2
Jan 3 2020 Melfort – 3 @ Nipawin – 2
Jan 4 2020 Nipawin – 5 @ Melfort – 4 F/OT
Feb 27 2020 Melfort @ Nipawin
Feb 28 2020 Nipawin @ Melfort
The Mustangs come into tonight’s game 5-1-1 in their last 7. Melfort went 5-0 on their season long home stand this month with wins over Flin Flon, Estevan, Melville, Notre Dame and Weyburn. Tian Rask was a big part of the teams home stand success. Rask was named the SJHL’s runner up for player of the week thanks to a 3 goal 3 assist week. Rask now sits with 22 points in 23 games on the season and has been a force since he joined the Mustangs from the Canmore Eagles. With just a single win in their remaining 3 games the Mustangs can guarantee them a spot in the top 5, and with multiple wins can give themselves a real shot at top 4 and home ice in a first round series. There’s still so much to be decided that even with only 3 games left Melfort can finish anywhere from 3rd to 7th place in the SJHL Standings.
The Nipawin Hawks come into tonight’s game coming off a tough home ice loss to the Estevan Bruins on Saturday. The Hawks now sit tied with Estevan for 6th with both clubs having two games to play. The Hawks will be without Jordan Simoneau this weekend. The big forward from Tisdale is serving a two game suspension from the game against the Bruins. He will be back and ready to go for the first game of the playoffs. The Hawks are also without Davis Chorney tonight. He got a single game suspension for a multiple fight situation in the same game. He will be back tomorrow night.
| SJHL Standings | GP | W | L | OTL | SOL | PTS | |
| 1 | xy – Battlefords North Stars | 56 | 44 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 90 |
| 2 | xy – Flin Flon Bombers | 55 | 36 | 13 | 6 | 0 | 78 |
| 3 | xy – Yorkton Terriers | 56 | 34 | 19 | 2 | 1 | 71 |
| 4 | x – La Ronge Ice Wolves | 56 | 31 | 19 | 3 | 3 | 68 |
| 5 | x – Melfort Mustangs | 55 | 29 | 17 | 6 | 3 | 67 |
| 6 | x – Nipawin Hawks | 56 | 30 | 22 | 3 | 1 | 64 |
| 7 | x – Estevan Bruins | 56 | 30 | 22 | 3 | 1 | 64 |
| 8 | x – Humboldt Broncos | 56 | 26 | 21 | 7 | 2 | 61 |
| 9 | Kindersley Klippers | 56 | 23 | 26 | 6 | 1 | 53 |
| 10 | Notre Dame Hounds | 57 | 18 | 31 | 5 | 3 | 44 |
| 11 | Weyburn Red Wings | 56 | 19 | 34 | 1 | 2 | 41 |
| 12 | Melville Millionaires | 55 | 15 | 34 | 2 | 4 | 36 |
Tonight’s game starts at 7:30pm from the cage in Nipawin. The rematch goes tomorrow, same time, from the Palace in Melfort! Tickets can be bought online at tickets.melfortmustangs.com Photo Credit: Broad Leaf Media