Playoff matches are set as the SJHL regular season concluded last week.
The Melfort Mustangs and La Ronge Ice Wolves will be playing as the playoffs open in a matchup of Sherwood Division teams. The Flin Flon Bombers, Mustangs, Ice Wolves and Nipawin Hawks all made the playoffs.
The Mustangs will have home-ice advantage in their series with the Ice Wolves as they earned the four seed and the Ice Wolves are the fifth seed. The Nipawin Hawks will be facing the second seed Humboldt Broncos. The playoff schedule has not been released as of March 13.
The Mustangs finished second in regular season standings with a record of 31-16-5-4 with 71 points, the Ice Wolves finished third with a record of 32-19-3-2 with 69 points and the Hawks were fourth with a record of 26-24-5-1 with 58 points.
In their final game of the regular season, the Mustangs traveled to Nipawin and shut out the Hawks 3-0 on Friday, March 10. Joel Favreau stopped all 24 shots he faced to record the shutout for Melfort.
The game was scoreless after the first period and Melfort led 2-0 after the second period. Hayden Tuba, Dawson Leroux and Ben Tkatchuk scored for the Mustangs. Jayden Kraus made 34 saves for the Hawks.
The Mustangs traveled to Flin Flon and defeated the Bombers 6-3 on Tuesday, March 7. The game was tied 1-1 after the first period and Melfort led 4-2 after the sedonc
Zac Somers, Tye Evans, Boston Maxwell, Tkachuk and Tuba scored for Melfort. Reece Richmond, Brock Mueller and Joey Lies responded for Flin Flon.
Favreau made 30 saves for Melfort; Harmon Laser-Hume made 30 saves for Flin Flon.
The Bombers earned a split of the final home-and-home series with the Ice Wolves with a 3-2 win in Flin Flon on Saturday, March 11. La Ronge led 2-1 after the first period and the game was tied 2-2 after the second period.
Jacob Visentini and Liam McInnis scored for La Ronge. Brent Gulenchyn had a pair of goals for Flin Flon and Mueller added the other Bombers’ goal.
Dawson Smith made 33 saves for La Ronge; Laser-Hume made 35 saves for Flin Flon.
The Ice Wolves won the first game 5-1 over the Bombers in La Ronge on Friday, March 10. The Ice Wolve led 2-0 after the first period and 2-1 after the second period.
Thomas Wright had a pair of goals for La Ronge; Trenton Curtis, Cobe Delaney and Visentini added the other Ice Wolves’ goals. Alex Von Sprecken scored the Bombers’ lone goal.
Smith made 50 saves for La Ronge; Kenneth Marquart made 28 saves for Flin Flon.
The Hawks traveled to Battleford and lost 3-2 in overtime to the North Stars on Tuesday, March 7.
Jake Southgate scored the winner 4:17 into the extra period. Nipawin led 1-0 after the first period and the North Stars led 2-1 after the second period.
Carson Dobson and Chase Visser scored for Nipawin in regulation. Jake Southgate and Wilson Steele scored for Battlefords in regulation.
Dawson Cunningham made 37 saves in just over 50 minutes of action for Nipawin before he was relieved by Jackson Fellner who made five saves. Justen Maric made 31 saves for the North Stars.
sports@paherald.sk.ca
