MOOSEJAWTODAY.COM -- An up-and-down tournament ended in positive fashion for the Moose Jaw U11 Mustangs at the Sask Lacrosse provincial box festival in Saskatoon this past weekend, with the local squad bringing home bronze from the nine-team tournament.
Moose Jaw opened the event with a 7-2 loss to the Shellbrook Storm before downing the Saskatoon Dragons 5-3 and dropping a 10-1 decision to the Regina Crush.
Sunday action saw the Mustangs get a measure of revenge with a 4-3 win over Shellbrook before a 4-1 loss to the Swift Current Rampage sent Moose Jaw into the third place game. There, they’d take a 6-4 win over Swift Current to claim bronze.
Shellbrook 7 Mustangs 2
Shellbrook scored six unanswered goals through the second and third periods to secure the tournament-opening win.
Moose Jaw led 2-1 after the first on goals from Caleb Meadows and James Eritz, but Kaleb Gouldhawke scored twice shorthanded while Jayce Helm and Lily Kennedy had single markers for a 4-3 Storm lead.
Helm finished off the hat trick in the third, and Waylon Smith had their other marker.
Mustangs 5, Dragons 3
Goals from Jaxson Fellinger with 3:20 to play in regulation and Jack Hourie 11 seconds later snapped a 3-3 tie and gave Moose Jaw their first win at the festival.
Dax Hurford scored twice for the Mustangs and finished with a hat trick, while Theodore Watts scored all three goals for Saskatoon.
Crush 10, Mustangs 1
A five-goal first period for Regina set the tone, and they’d add two more in the second and three more in the third for the commanding win.
Sawyer Noga had Moose Jaw’s lone goal in the first.
Calder Crossman scored four times for Regina, while Jenson Boschman and Ryan Welder each scored twice. Oliver Gryschuk and Oscar Stein had single markers.
Mustangs 4, Shellbrook 3
Three goals 1:30 apart midway through the third period proved to be the difference, as the Mustangs built a 4-1 lead and then held on for the win.
Meadows got their rally going with a power play goal with 11:50 to play in the period, followed by Eritz 42 seconds later and Ace Bellefeuille 48 seconds after that mark.
Gouldhawke scored twice late in the period to make things interesting, but Moose Jaw would secure the victory.
Payton Pinel had Moose Jaw’s other goal in the second period, Jonah Sumners also scored for the Storm.
Swift Current 4, Mustangs 1
Lee Brown scored four times -- including a hat trick in the first period -- to lead the Rampage offence.
Hurford scored the lone goal for Moose Jaw, with his marker coming late in the third period as Swift Current led 3-1 after the first and second periods.
Mustangs 6, Swift Current 4
The bronze medal game saw the Mustangs once again come up big late in the contest, this time with Hourie and Hurford scoring back-to-back shorthanded goals with 8:13 and 8:01 remaining in the game to secure the medal.
The first period was as back-and-forth as can be, with Hurford and Fellinger answering a pair of goals from the Rampage’s Brown and another from Griffin Larson.
Hurford tied the game at 11:50 of the second, Jase Neuman replied for Swift Current with a power play goal with seven minutes remaining in the period, and Zadie Bellefeuille tied things once again with 3:15 to play.
The Weyburn Thrashers took a 9-2 win over the Prince Albert Lumberjacks to claim gold.
