CALGARY, AB – In the words of the great NFL coach Bill Parcells: “This is why you lift all them weights!”.
The Melfort Mustangs will look to take one step further than they did a year ago at the Centennial Cup when they take on the Calgary Canucks in the Gold Medal Game Sunday evening.
Storylines abound in this one.
It was a whole ten days ago, on Day 1 of the event, that Calgary downed Melfort 3-1 in a game where the Mustangs felt they deserved better. Opportunities for revenge in tournaments like this are rare.
Mustangs’ defenceman Cole Unger was a rookie defenceman for the Canucks in 2022-23, so for him, and Calgarians on the squad like star goaltender Kristian Coombs, and Kaleb Binner, this game is personal in the extreme.
Melfort also had a very strong tournament at the 2024 Centennial Cup in Oakville, before falling short in the final to the Collingwood Blues of the Ontario Junior Hockey League. Redemption has been on the minds of the 14 Mustangs who return from that day all season, dating back to their campaign opener on Sept. 20, 2024, in a 3-2 overtime win over the La Ronge Ice Wolves.
The Mustangs’ path to the final has been far from easy.
Melfort is playing its third game in three days, as its opening-day loss to Calgary meant a second-place finish and a need to play in Friday’s quarterfinal. It will be their fifth game in six days.
The Canucks on the other hand have had one game, albeit an intense overtime semifinal yesterday vs. the CCHL champion Rockland Nationals, in five days. They closed out their group stage with an 8-2 thrashing of Maritime champion Edmundston Blizzard last Tuesday.
But as Matthew Broderick’s character Robert G. Shaw said in the classic 1989 film ‘Glory’: “There’s more to fighting than rest. There’s character. There’s strength of heart.”
This Melfort team has shown that strength of heart in spades all season long.
The Mustangs have been led offensively by University of Maine commit Zac Somers and 2005-born forward Ashton Hutchinson, who both have eight points in the event.
Calgary’s leading point producer is 18-year-old defenceman Maloney, who has nine points, and signed to play with the Lethbridge Hurricanes of the Western Hockey League right before the Centennial Cup was set to begin. He was committed to play NCAA Division I hockey at Quinnipiac University at one point.
The puck drops at the Max Bell Centre in Calgary at 5:00 P.M. MDT, and can be watched live at HNLive.ca, and on TSN+.
