By Mat Barrett

Mustangs tame Broncos with 5-2 win

Jan 19, 2019 | 9:27 AM

The Melfort Mustangs continue to have the Humboldt Broncos’ number in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL).

The Mustangs battled the Broncos at the Northern Lights Palace Friday night in Melfort, and even though the Broncos scored first, the Mustangs responded and took a 5-2 win. It was their fourth win against the Broncos this season.

That first Bronco goal came just two minutes into the game on a powerplay, when former Mustang Drew Warkentine bit his old team with a great one-timer that beat Melfort netminder Noah Giesbrecht. The lead remained for 11 minutes in the first frame as the Mustangs responded as the home team was pressing hard. The puck found its way back to Boedy Donald who was waiting at the top of the right wing cricle, and his wrist shot beat Broncos goalie Dane Dow. Three minutes later, Kenzie Arnold broke out of the Mustangs zone and into the Broncos zone. He was able to feed the puck to trade-deadline-acquisition George King, who made no mistake on the shot to make it 2-1 Mustangs with his first goal with Melfort.

The man who set up King, Kenzie Arnold, said he’s enjoying playing with his new winger.

“It’s awesome.” Arnold told northeastNOW. “He makes work a lot easier I guess you could say. You just give him the puck and he’ll put it in the net.”

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Humboldt got themselves another goal as the second period commenced. Mitch Zambon notched his 16th goal of the season just three minutes into the frame.The Mustangs took three minutes to respond this time as Kenzie Arnold set up another one of his linemates. This time it was Colin Schmidt who got on the scoreboard with his 12th goal of the season. The Mustangs led on the scoreboard after two periods, but were down 30-18 on the shot clock as Giesbrecht was excellent for Melfort.

Down a goal in the third period, the Broncos got a powerplay about three minutes in. The best chance on the man advantage came as Michael Clarke got a cross-ice pass in the left wing circle for a wide open one-timer. Luckily for the Mustangs, Clarke’s stick broke in half like Noah Dobson’s in the gold medal game at the World Juniors in January. The Mustangs killed off the penalty and got back to work to close out the game. Carson Albrecht scored with about five minutes to go in the game, while Tanner Zentner added an empty netter with less than three minutes to play.

Arnold said after the game that the team needed that win.

“It felt good.” He said. “We’ve been in a little hole. And our line has been building chemistry game by game and I thought our line played really well tonight.”

The line of Arnold, Schmidt, and King combined for five points on the night (two goals, three assists).

The Mustangs improve to a record of 26-13-2-0 and are back in action on Saturday, Jan. 19 in Humboldt against the Broncos. That game can be heard on CK750 with Winmar Tisdale SJHL Hockey getting underway at 7:15 p.m.

mat.barrett@jpbg.ca