(Photo courtesy/Broad Leaf Media, Facebook)

By Ben Tompkins

Sustained Success

Are the Mustangs the SJHL’s dynasty of the last decade?

May 8, 2024 | 1:03 PM

After winning this year’s SJHL Championship over the Flin Flon Bombers this past Tuesday at home, the Melfort Mustangs are now in Oakville, Ontario for their third Centennial Cup appearance since the 2014/15 season.

That now ties the Battlefords North Stars for the most league titles since that time, as the Stangs have been arguably the most consistent team in Saskatchewan for the past decade.

“I think our success has to come down to who we have in place with our coaching staff, and who’s in our offices. We do have turnover of board members and staff and things like that, but I think you really do have to give kudos to Trevor (Blevins) for what he’s been able to accomplish as far as getting players that want to come to an organization like this, with the pedigree it has,” explained Mustangs President, Jordan Lee.

“Some of the people who have been here for 14 or 15 years, you could see the emotion on their faces when we won at home for the first time, it meant a lot to everyone who put so much work into this team.”

Not only does Melfort have a league-high tying three chips and four appearances since 2015, in which they only finished worse than fourth in the regular season once, but they also haven’t missed the playoffs since 2012 (worst finish was wild card loss to Notre Dame Hounds in 2016/17).

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That sustained success has resonated quite well with the local fans, especially these playoffs when they saw record-breaking crowds.

“I think you can take our attendance and things throughout the playoffs as signs that the community and the organization were really excited about this team. I can safely say that no one remembers us selling out five times in a single playoff run,” added Lee.

“There’s always been a big bonus of people wanting to see the boys out in the community and they did that a lot this year. Everything from that to the local second-round series against Humboldt really just built a ton of excitement around this team.”

The Blue and Green will now look to add even more to their organization’s history, as they hope to end a 10-year National Title drought for the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.

“I think it would be it’s really hard to put in words what it would mean to the people who are involved in the day-to-day running of this team. We would not have a team without the support we get from this town, so it would just be an immense honour for the town to have that, being I think maybe only five or six SJ organizations have ever won,” Lee told northeastNOW.

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

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