John MacNeil
Daily Herald
The Melfort Mustangs cashed in Saturday night to earn a split with the Melville Millionaires in their home-and-home series on the second weekend of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League regular season.
Angelo Colletti, an 18-year-old forward from St-Leonard, Que., scored the lone goal in the second period to give the Mustangs a 1-0 win at Melville. It was his first point in four SJHL career games.
Luke McKechnie, the former Alberta Junior Hockey League goaltender acquired in an August trade with the Devon Xtreme, made 42 saves to record his first shutout and second victory in three games with Melfort.
Kaleb Page blocked 21 shots in his regular-season debut with Melville.
Including a couple of fights, the feisty game came just one day after the Millionaires posted a 2-1 victory on an emotional Friday night in Melfort.
Before that game, the Mustangs remembered one of their own, Mark Odnokon, the inaugural coach and former general manager of the team. Odnokon, who died last May, was a teacher, coach and mentor for decades in Prince Albert, where he played with the Raiders back in their SJHL days and remained part of the organization at the WHL level.
About 650 fans showed up at Melfort’s Northern Lights Place on the Odnokon tribute night.
All of the scoring Friday came in the first period. Jaden Kokosha’s tally with 2:21 left in the period stood as Melville’s winning goal. Six minutes earlier, the Millionaires’ Wesley Olson had evened the score at 1-1, just one minute after Melfort’s Tyson Janzen opened the scoring.
Mustangs’ rookie defenceman Eric Grandberg assisted on the goal from Janzen, an 18-year-old forward from Martensville. Grandberg, a 55-point man last winter with the U18 AAA Saskatoon Blazers, has a goal and three points after three SJHL games with Melfort this season.
Noah Kraus, a 19-year-old goalie from Toronto, stopped 30 of 31 shots to register his second victory in three games with Melville. McKechnie made 22 saves in the Mustangs’ net.
In their lone SJHL game last weekend, the La Ronge Ice Wolves lost 4-1 to the host Flin Flon Bombers on Friday night. It was the home-opener for the defending-champion Bombers.
In front of 1,207 fans, Flin Flon scored four straight goals after falling behind 1-0 six minutes into the game.
Jack Martin’s two-goal performance included the power-play equalizer in the first period and a short-handed marker in the third. Ryder Mucha and Jared Miskiw also tallied for the Bombers, who led 3-1 after the opening period.
La Ronge’s lone goal came from Brock Inglis, a 19-year-old forward from Okotoks, Alta., who has three points in as many games this season.
Riley Zezel blocked 33 of the 37 shots he faced in the Ice Wolves’ net, while the Bombers’ Finn Werner registered 17 stops to post his second victory in as many appearances this season.
In their home-opener Friday, the Nipawin Hawks led 2-0 after the first period but went on to lose 5-4 to the Warman Wolverines in front of 666 fans at Centennial Arena.
In his third game with the Hawks, 20-year-old forward Brock Evans potted a goal and two assists to collect his initial points with Nipawin. The matchup with Warman pitted Evans against his hometown team.
Another veteran forward, Mason Karakochuk, netted a goal and an assist for the Hawks, whose other scorers were Carson Park and Jeremy Wehrens.
Nipawin goalie Madex Kabrud stopped 36 of the 41 shots directed his way. Kabrud and the Hawks are winless in three games this season.
Luke Brunen handled 43 of the 47 shots he faced in Warman’s net.
Chase Kettles, a goaltending prospect of the WHL’s Prince Albert Raiders, won his first SJHL start last Saturday as the host Battlefords North Stars edged the Humboldt Broncos 5-4 in overtime.
The 2009-born Kettles, who is from Headingley, Man., made 23 saves, setting the stage for Owen Nelson’s goal with just 28 seconds left in the five-minute overtime period.
Raiden Zacharias powered Battlefords with his goal and three assists.
U.S. goalie Matthew Bradley stopped 32 shots for Humboldt, which got two goals from Jack Sears and a goal and two assists from Nathan Da Silva.
Battlefords faced another worthy opponent at home Sunday as the Stars lost 4-0 to Warman. Wolverines’ netminder Brunen, with 41 stops, registered his first shutout and fourth straight win after five games in this young season.
Elsewhere in the SJHL, the Kindersley Klippers and Yorkton Terriers split their two games in Kindersley, with the Klippers winning 7-3 on Saturday and the Terriers prevailing 4-1 on Friday. In a home-and-home weekend series, the Weyburn Red Wings topped the Estevan Bruins 5-3 on Saturday at Estevan and 8-5 on Friday at Weyburn.
In this week’s games involving teams from the Rural Roots region, Nipawin was scheduled to visit La Ronge on Wednesday and Weyburn on Friday, while Melfort and Warman play each other in a home-and-home series, with stops in Warman on Friday and Melfort on Saturday.
