Lopez leads charge as Mustangs win ugly over Klippers to close out road swing

Dec 12, 2021 | 9:35 AM

It was another back and forth, wild affair for the Melfort Mustangs on Saturday, Dec. 11 as they closed out their western road swing.

Just one night after defeating the Battlefords North Stars 3-2 in overtime, the Mustangs downed the Kindersley Klippers 6-5 in what was another back and forth affair.

Tylin Hilbig started things off for Kindersley, just over five minutes into the hockey game, and from then on the Mustangs seemed to be chasing a bit for most of the contest. Marco Lopez would respond for the Mustangs two minutes later as an attempted pass went off a Klipper skate and past goalie Matt Pesenti. However, about seven minutes after that, Hilbig would score another to take the Klipper lead back. Although Curtis Hammond would tie it up for Melfort again late in the frame to leave things at 2-2 through one period.

In the third, Hilbig would notch his hat-trick just over eight minutes into the period to give the Klippers the 3-2 lead. Trenton Curtis responded for Melfort at the 14:30 mark of the frame, but the 3-3 tie would only stand for 27 seconds as Charles Obobaifo scored for Kindersley to take the lead back. Andrew Blocker would add another one before the end of the second and it was 5-3 Klippers after 2.

Mustangs Assistant Coach Dan Meyers said the first two periods were not a good performance from the group. He said the message through two periods was to try and go play a full 20 minutes in the third and pull a win out.

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“We just finally got back to doing what we’ve been doing,” Meyers said. “And that’s just hard work, we got skating again, and hitting. First two periods we just took it right off actually.”

Lopez’s second goal of the night got the Mustangs back within one just over six minutes into the third. That was followed by a Dawson Leroux goal just over halfway through the period to tie things up before Lopez’s Hat-trick marker was the ultimate game-winner less than a minute after the game was tied.

“[Lopez] did everything that we asked of him,” Meyers said. “That’s what the whole team was supposed to do tonight, but Lopez did show up tonight and he got rewarded with those goals by hard work.”

James Venne stopped 25 out of 30 shots he saw in the contest for his seventh win of the season for the Mustangs.

The win is also the Mustangs fourth win in a row and third win by just a single goal. They’re back at it on Tuesday to take on the Melville Millionaires.

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mat.barrett@melfortmustangs.com

On Twitter: @matbarrett6

by Mat Barrett

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Lopez leads charge as Mustangs win ugly over Klippers to close out road swing

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