The Melfort Mustangs showed the Flin Flon Bombers why they are the hottest team in the SJHL as they brought a nine game winning streak into their home and home series this past weekend.
The Mustangs hosted the first game on Friday and the Bombers got off to a great start and scored the first two goals.
Nathan Lalumiere opened up the scoring with his 6th of the season and Wyatt Stinton scored his 15th shortly after on the powerplay as the Bombers looked good early building up a 2 to 0 lead.
The Mustangs answered late in the opening period as Nolan Patterson was able to jump on a juicy rebound in front of the Bomber net and beat Finn Werner, with only ten seconds remaining in the opening frame.
This sparked Melfort who would score the next three goals courtesy of Dru Mushumanski, Carter Bilous and Patterson picking up his second of the game putting the Mustangs up 4 to 2 after two.
You knew the Bombers were going to push hard in the third and they did with Landon Alexander able to pot his 12th of the year taking advantage of a mad scramble in the Mustang crease.
Despite firing 15 shots on Madden Mulawka, Flin Flon could only get one puck past him and fell at the Northern Lights Palace 4 to 3.
Both goalies played very well with Mulawka stopping 39 out of 42 and he was the difference in the game. The Melfort goaltenders are one of the big reasons the Mustangs are back in a playoff spot and have been incredible down the stretch.
Finn Werner stopped 21 out of 25 and suffered just his second regulation loss of the year and falls to 12-2 on the year.
The two teams would prepare for the rematch on Saturday night at the Whitney Forum and the Bombers liked their chances as they have been indestructible at home this season at 23-0.
The Mustangs came in with confidence and were rewarded with the first goal when 19 year old Tristan Ziola flew down the right side and beat both Bomber defenseman and out waited Chaelie Tritt with a sweet move for his 9th of the year.
Joey Lies got the Bombers even with his team leading 24th , when he snuck a back hander by Kason Kobelka.
Ziola was at it again and this time he grabbed a loose puck in his own zone and marched down the ice and blew past all five Bomber’s and finished off with a tap in between the legs of Tritt.
It was one of the nicest goals I have definitely seen all season.
Flin Flon was able to fight back and tie the game, taking advantage of one of their few powerplay chances with Leo Seitz scoring low glove side on Kobelka. Defenseman Xavier Fauchon made a great play to keep the puck in the Melfort Zone and then fed the nice pass to Seitz who converted.
This tied the game at two after one period and neither team could find the back of the net for the rest of regulation.
I thought the Bombers dictated the pace for the first two periods but started to run out of gas early in the third and Melfort started to get some really good chances and carried the momentum into overtime.
Melfort jumped on the Bombers right away and had them on their heels and didn’t allow Flin Flon any momentum what so ever. One of the Mustang snipers in Zayden Sadlemyer took advantage of a nice pass from Noel Englot and ended the game with a shot off the left post and in.
This stunned the Bombers and the Whitney Forum crowd who tasted defeat for the first time this season after reeling off 23 straight home wins. The last time the Bombers lost a home game in the regular season was January the 5th of 2025, 5 to 4 to Laronge in a shoot out, so you knew it had to happen some time but everyone was hoping the streak would continue.
The Bombers were disappointed, but you have to admit that is a very impressive streak and sooner or later everyone loses, that is just the nature of the beast .
Melfort got great goaltending again from Kason Kobelka who stopped 32 of 34 while Charlie Tritt suffered the loss giving up 3 goals on 21 shots.
Head Coach and GM Mike Reagan had this to say after his team’s first loss at home on Saturday night. “ We have definitely played some great hockey in this building and we are hoping that continues here. It is disappointing but I have to give our guys credit as we lost Landon Alexander on the first shift and we are already short a forward tonight. We played with ten forwards and we have a lot of guys that are banged up right now. I thought the start of our third period was good but fatigue started to take over. We have had a good run here and we are still unbeaten in regulation in this building, but I think if we are healthy we don’t lose this game tonight.”
After the weekend the Bombers will slip to 37-11-2-1 and have 77 points which is 5 up on Yorkton who have passed the Battlefords for second overall.
How about the Melfort Mustangs who looked dead and buried back in January but have erupted for 11 straight wins and are 6th overall at 27-20-2-2, and are now just 6 points behind the fifth place Weyburn Red Wings.
It is going to be a very interesting finish.
The Bombers have 5 games remaining on the season and four are at the Whitney Forum including the Battleford Stars who make their way to the Whitney Forum this weekend. You couldn’t draw it up any better with both these teams battling for first overall and always play an exciting brand of hockey.
Should be very entertaining and hopefully a great atmosphere with the playoffs only a few weeks away. Hoping for big crowds at the Whitney Forum all weekend.