Split Weekend for Unlucky Mustangs

The Kodiak Melbourne Mustangs had a mixed bag of results this weekend, bringing home the chocolates Saturday but missing out Sunday. A win over ladder leaders CBR Brave Saturday was a great result and it’s good to come away from the weekend with three points.

Matt Anderson scored our first early on Saturday afternoon, assisted by Vadim Virjassov, and the Mustangs were off to a promising start. CBR bounced back just before the break and the game seemed destined to be tight fought.

Brendan McDowell regained the lead early in the second period, assisted by Ben Davies and Mitch Humphries. We were able to extend this lead in the 3rd with goals to Humphries and Brett Ferguson. Humphries goal came just after the resumption and was assisted by Sean Jones and Davies. A few minutes later Ferguson put the icing on the cake with help from Nikita Kolesnikovs and Bradley Apps. It was Kolesnikovs best game for the Mustangs to date and we look forward to seeing what else he has to offer for the rest of the season.

Shots on goal were relatively even Saturday with the Stangs facing 24 and hitting the CBR Goalie 22 times.

After a strong result Saturday the Mustangs came into Sunday’s game full of confidence. Bolstered by Saturday’s result and by Coach Parent joining them on the Bench (he was missing from Saturday’s game for personal reasons) the club was looking to bring home six points.

Brave pounced early to take the lead but Jones bounced back quickly with support from Jamie Bourke and Andrew Erzen. Unfortunately CBR were able to find the back of the net two more times in the first. The first period was a fiery affair with a misconduct penalty to Humphries and many roughing penalties handed out to both sides.

Brave started strongly in the second putting on two more goals before Ferguson scored a double making the score 5-3 just before the intermission. Unfortunately an unlucky Mustangs defence let another one through meaning the score was 6-3 at the final break. Kolesnikovs found himself in the referee’s bad books in the second, getting a game misconduct, ending his night.

The Mustangs started strongly in the third getting the first goal and it looked like the traditional Mustangs third period comeback might be happening again. Unfortunately this was short lived and the Brave were able to score again twice before the end of the game.

The Mustangs are back in Melbourne this week with a Derby on Friday night before our Canada Day Game Sunday. Get your tickets via Ticketmaster today. The Derby, especially, will sell out.