The Melfort Mustangs and Flin Flon Bombers, the top two teams in the SJHL are the only teams from the Sherwood Division to make the SJHL Playoffs, which begin this weekend.
The Mustangs finished first overall in the SJHL and Sherwood Division with a record of 46-8-0-2 with 94 points. The Bombers finished second in the Sherwood and SJHL with a record of 38-13-4-1 with 81 points.
The La Ronge Ice Wolves finished their season with a record of 24-27-3-2 with 53 points to finish fourth in the Sherwood Division and ninth in the SJHL. They also finished two points behind the Kindersley Kippers for the final playoff spot.
The Nipawin Hawks finished the season with a record of 17-33-3-3 with 40 points in fourth place in the Sherwood and in 11th place in the league.
The Mustangs will be playing the eighth place Klippers in the first round of the playoffs. In other playoff matchups the second seeded Bombers face the seventh seeded Humboldt Broncos, the sixth seeded Battlefords North Stars face the third seeded Weyburn Red Wings and the fourth seeded Yorkton Terriers face the third seeded Melville Millionaires.
The Mustangs closed out their regular season with a 4-2 win over the Notre Dame Hounds on Sunday, Feb. 16 in Wilcox in what was the franchises last game before they move to Warman next season.
Melfort led 2-0 after the first period and 3-0 after the second period.
Reilley Kotai, Zac Somers, Zayden Sadlemyer and Danton Cox scored for the Mustangs.
Hudson Kerr and Nick Beatty responded for the Hounds.
Josh Henry made 24 saves for the Mustangs; Spencer Borsos made 33 saves for the Hounds.
The Mustangs scheduled game for Friday, March 15 against Notre Dame in Melfort was postponed to Saturday, March 16 because of inclement weather.
The Mustangs won the rescheduled game 7-1 in Melfort on Saturday, March 16.
Melfort led 2-0 after the first period and 5-1 after the second period.
Logan Belton, Nolan Patterson and Kotai each had a pair of goals for the Mustangs and Ashton Paul added the other Melfort goal.
Anthony Nolan had the lone goal for the Hounds.
Kristian Coombs stopped all seven shots he faces in just over 19 minutes before he was replaced by Madden Mulawka who made 15 saves. Steven Warwyk made 44 saves for the Hounds.
The Mustangs opened their week with a 7-5 loss to the Ice Wolves in Melfort on Wednesday, March 12.
The Mustangs led 1-0 after the first period and the game was tied 3-3 after the second period.
Ashton Hutchinson had a pair of goals for Melfort; Tristin Ziola and Sadlemyer and Paul added the other Mustangs goals.
Cole Thomas had a hat trick for La Ronge; Owen Turner, Aiden Meintz, Jacob Cossette and Taite Donkin added the other Ice Wolves goals.
Mulawka made 23 saves for Melfort; Graham Brown made 36 saves for La Ronge.
The Ice Wolves closed their regular season with a 4-1 loss to the Bombers in Flin Flon on Saturday, March 16. The loss knocked the Ice Wolves from the playoffs.
The Bombers led 2-0 after the first period and 2-1 after the second period.
Hudson Cameron scored the lone goal for La Ronge.
Koen Senft had a hat trick for the Bombers and Ryder Ringor added the other Flin Flon goal.
Brown made 35 saves for La Ronge; Kenneth Marquart made 31 saves for the Bombers.
The Ice Wolves kept their playoff hopes alive with a 6-3 win over the Bombers in La Ronge on Friday, March 15.
The Ice Wolves led 2-1 after the first period and 4-2 after the second period.
Rylan Silzer had a hat trick, and Cameron had a pair of goals for the Ice Wolves; Waylon Gardidy added the other La Ronge goal.
Rhett Ewen, Keefe Gruener and Ryder Ringor responded for the Bombers.
Brown made 45 saves for La Ronge; Matthew Kieper made 20 saves for the Bombers.
The Hawks concluded their regular season with a 6-1 loss to the Humboldt Broncos in Nipawin on Friday, March 15.
The game was scoreless after the first period and the Broncos led 3-0 after the second period.
Konnor Watson scored the lone Hawks’ goal.
Michael Dowdall had a pair of goals for Humboldt: Kye Benoche, Ryder Knutson, Rylan Hue and Maddox Amaral scored the other Broncos goals.
Nik Trakakis made 29 saves for the Hawks; Dazza Mitchell made 22 saves for the Broncos.
The Hawks opened their final week of the regular season with a 5-4 overtime win over the Bombers in Nipawin on Tuesday, March 11.
Will Whiter scored the game winner 4:52 into overtime for Nipawin.
The Hawks led 32-0 after the first period and 3-1 after the second period.
Van Taylor, Ashton Tait, Mason Karokachuk and Watson scored in regulation time for Nipawin.
Keefe Gruener, Koen Senft, Liam Hunks and Ryder Mucha scored for Flin Flon in regulation.
Gage Roberts made 33 saves for Nipawin; Kenneth Marquart made 12 saves for Flin Flon.
The Mustangs and Klippers open their playoff series in Melfort on Friday, March 21 and Saturday, March 22. The series then moves to Kindersley for Game 3 and Game 4 on Tuesday, March 25 and Wednesday, March 26. If necessary Game 5 would be in Melfort on Saturday, March 29, Game 6 would be in Kindersley on Monday, March 31 and Game 7 would be in Melfort on Wednesday, April 2.
