CALGARY, AB – When you get to the business end of tournaments, you want to see those clashes of the titans.
Saturday evening’s semifinal at the Centennial Cup between the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League champion Melfort Mustangs and Trenton Golden Hawks of the Ontario Junior Hockey League is just that.
Puck drops at 7:30 P.M. from the Max Bell Centre in Calgary on HNLive.ca.
Saturday night’s combatants have had a very different schedule of late, as Melfort has played two whole games since Trenton has been in live action.
The Mustangs played the afternoon quarterfinal Friday, downing the Greater Sudbury Cubs of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League 7-1 led by three point nights from Ashton Hutchinson and Ashton Paul.
They also closed out their Group Stage vs. Valleyfield of the Quebec league on Wednesday afternoon.
Trenton, on the other hand, has not played since last Tuesday afternoon, when they beat the Alberta Junior Hockey League participant Grand Prairie Storm 6-2 to close out their round robin.
The Golden Hawks went 3-0-1 in the group stage, with their only defeat coming in overtime to the Kam River Fighting Walleye of the Superior International Junior Hockey League.
Like Group B winners Calgary, Trenton finished with nine points, enough to top Group A, but missed out on the No. 1 seed in the Centennial Cup playoffs on goal difference.
They have been led offensively by their regular season scoring leader David Fournier, and their post-season scoring leader Corbin Roach, who both have seven points in the tournament thus far.
Ryan Sanborn has carried most of their load in net, and he sports a 3-0 record and a .921 save percentage in the Centennial Cup to date.
The Golden Hawks are coached by former Ottawa Senators and Calgary Flames defenceman Derek Smith, who guided the club to a 47-6-2-1 record in the OJHL regular season. They defeated the Milton Menace in six games to win the OJHL’s Buckland Cup.
The eastern Ontario club were ranked No. 2 in the final Canadian Junior Hockey League rankings in mid-March.
Melfort last faced OJHL opposition in the 2024 Centennial Cup final, when they fell 2-1 to the Collingwood Blues.
FIND THIS YEAR’S FULL EVENT SCHEDULE HERE.
Hear what Mustangs head coach/GM Trevor Blevins had to say after yesterday’s quarterfinal here:
Hear what 2005-born Mustangs forward Ashton Hutchinson had to say after yesterday’s quarterfinal here:
