Daily Herald Staff
The Melfort Mustangs sit third in Group B after splitting their first two games at the Centennial Cup in Calgary.
The Mustangs opened the tournament with a 3-1 loss to the host Calgary Canucks on May 8, but bounced back with a 5-3 win over the Edmundston Blizzard on May 10. Results from Tuesday’s game against the Rockland Nationals and Wednesday’s game against the Braves de Valleyfield were not available by press time.
Zach Somers led the way with a hat trick against Edmundston. Ashton Paul and Danton Cox had the other goals, while Kristian Coombs made 24 saves to earn the win.
“You have to give a lot of credit to Edmundston, they came out hard and heavy,” Mustangs head coach Trevor Blevins said in a press release. “I don’t think we expected that as a group, but we adjusted as we went through the game.”
“I thought our second period was better than our first and I liked our third period as well,” Blevins said. “Unfortunately, they got one behind us on our penalty kill, but guys persevered, played the right way, stayed mentally tough and found a way.”
Paul opened the scoring 4:22 into the first period with the lone assist going to Reilley Kotai. Jeremy D’Astous tied it up with a goal for Edmundston at 12:33.
The Mustangs led 2-1 after the first thanks to Somers’ first of the night. The two teams then combined for five goals in a high-flying third period that saw Edmundston rally to tie the game at three before Somers gave Melfort the lead for good with less than two minutes remaining.
Cox iced the game with an empty netter with 18 seconds left in the game.
“I thought our second period was better than our first and I liked our third period as well,” Blevins said. “Unfortunately, they got one behind us on our penalty kill, but guys persevered, played the right way, stayed mentally tough and found a way.”
Pool play ended on Wednesday, with the knockout round scheduled to start on Friday, May 16.
