(Ben Tompkins/northeastNOW)

By Ben Tompkins

Crowned at the Palace

Mustangs capture 2024 SJHL Championship

May 1, 2024 | 7:41 AM

The Melfort Mustangs are this year’s Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) champions.

A hard-fought series with the Flin Flon Bombers ended on Tuesday night, as a 4-1 victory gave the Mustangs a 4-2 series win.

Melfort captured the league title for the first time since 2016, doing so on home ice, as they were crowned at the Palace.

“It’s pretty fresh right now, but you know, they’re all special, always,” head coach and general manager, Trevor Blevins told northeastNOW regarding his third career SJHL title.

“I’ll speak to this one as far as the character and just the ability to battle through the adversity we’ve been able to get through all year, a special group and so proud of how they played and how they worked so hard, even if we had a little bit of a shaky first period tonight. We regrouped and reset like we’ve always done and I just can’t even put into words, to be honest, of how proud I am of this lineup and what they’ve done.”

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With their accomplishment this season, they’ve now earned the right to represent the SJHL at this year’s Centennial Cup.

All the festivities run from May 9-19 in Oakville Ont.

“We talked about it and looked at it, we sent some itineraries for flights but we got to finish that up tomorrow and we are just gonna enjoy tonight. We’ll figure out Oakville tomorrow and we’ll get things planned out,” added Blevins.

Of course, a celebration had to be had first, which is especially nice and a little easier when doing so at home with your fans.

The festivities capped off the club’s final home game of the 2023/24 campaign, ending it off in style as they were able to recognize the fanbase.

“It’s huge to win it at home, you dream of that. When we started this series and had such a good start, we thought we could close it out earlier, but for these guys to battle through that, this was game seven for us and we bought into that mentality before we even played today,” Blevins concluded.

“We knew we had to win here, it was gonna be tough to go back to Flin Flon, in that environment for a game seven. It was doable, but our chances were better here and so the guys just bought into the mentality that we were gonna get this done and they did, so great job by them here tonight.”

Defenceman Chase Friedt-Mohr was presented with the league’s Playoff MVP award, after putting up 23 points, the most as a D-man since 2006.

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

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