Mustangs looking to get back in win column with home and home versus Broncos

The Melfort Mustangs are looking to get back to their winning ways this weekend after losing three straight games for the first time in regular season play since mid-January of last season.

Melfort fell to Nipawin in the second game of 2020 in overtime to start their losing skid. That was followed by a 9-0 drubbing at the hands of the Flin Flon Bombers on Saturday, Jan. 11. Most recently, it was a 3-2 loss to the La Ronge Ice Wolves at home on Wednesday. However, the Mustangs still sit fifth in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) standings with a 22-14-3-1 record, and have games in hand on mostly every team around them.

One contributor to the Mustangs small skid could be the injury bug. Some key veterans including Alex Rondeau, and Tian Rask were gone for multiple weeks, while others like Tyson Meyers and Zach Anderson have missed a couple of games as well. Top it off with the Mustangs adding a couple of new defencemen at the SJHL’s trade deadline, there hasn’t been much consistency in the Mustangs lineup over the last month. Forward Ben Tkachuk said with Rondeau having returned on Wednesday, and Rask getting back on Saturday, along with some other veterans getting close to returning, things should be on the uptick.

“We’ll be firing on all cylinders sooner rather than later with our big guys back,” Tkachuk told northeastNOW. “But until then, some of the other guys got to pick it up, and I think we’ve been doing a decent job, but we’ll bounce back and we’ll be fine.”