THORNHILL, ON – On May 19, 2024, the Melfort Mustangs were one shot away from a national championship.
Despite a stellar 35-save performance from James Venne in the Mustangs’ crease, Melfort could not put a puck past Collingwood’s Noah Pak, who just spent the season with NCAA Division I Yale, and fell 1-0 in the final.
Mustangs head coach/GM Trevor Blevins’ men are foaming at the mouth to make it right this time around.
“We’re going there to win,” Melfort Mustangs head coach/GM Trevor Blevins said.
“For us, the 14 or 15 guys that were back from last year were just hungry to get it done all year, and it showed through the regular season and playoffs. The mindset of everyone is that whenever we get knocked down, we get back up hard and with a vengeance. I don’t feel that is going to change in Calgary. We have six or seven games to do it in a two week period, but we’re excited.”
The Mustangs earned the right to represent the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League at the event held in Calgary, AB May 8-18 this year, with a five-game Canterra Seeds Cup final series win over the Weyburn Red Wings.
The Centennial Cup is the Junior A National Championship, and is a Hockey Canada sanctioned event wherein the champions of the nine Canadian Junior Hockey League leagues, and the hosts Calgary, will vie for supremacy.
The teams involved this year will include:
- Melfort Mustangs (SJHL)
- Calgary Canucks (Host, AJHL)
- Grande Prairie Storm (AJHL)
- Trenton Golden Hawks (OJHL)
- Rockland Nationals (CCHL)
- Edmundston Blizzard (MHL)
- North Manitoba Blizzard (MJHL)
- Valleyfield Braves (QJAAAHL)
- Greater Sudbury Cubs (NOJHL)
- Kam River Fighting Walleye (SIJHL)
Melfort is in a tough Group B alongside Calgary, Rockland, Valleyfield, and Edmundston.
They became the first SJHL team to win back-to-back championships since Blevins and the Mustangs did it in 2015 and 2016.
In 2015, the Mustangs lost to the host Portage Terriers of the Manitoba League in the semifinal of the Junior A National Championship, and then in 2016, they failed to make it past the regional Western Canada Cup held in Estevan, SK.
The last time an SJHL team won the Junior A National Championship was the 2014 Yorkton Terriers.
Melfort’s shot at redemption almost a year on from that day in Oakville, ON will begin May 8 when they take on the host Calgary Canucks of the Alberta Junior Hockey League.
“We have a job unfinished (from last year),” said Melfort captain Ty Thornton.
“We are not taking it lightly this year; we’re heading into it, and we’re going to get prepared and ready to go win.”
FIND FULL DETAILS OF THE MELFORT MUSTANGS AT THE CENTENNIAL CUP ON OUR MEDIA GUIDE HERE
