The Centennial Cup, Canada's national championship tournament for Junior A hockey, gets underway Thursday from the Max Bell Centre in Calgary, Alberta.
Representing the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League for a second straight season, the Melfort Mustangs have two local connections to the roster in forward Austin Shepherd from Kerrobert, and assistant coach Tye Scherger from Macklin. The Mustangs made a run to the finals in 2024 where they lost a low scoring heartbreaker 1-0 to the Collingwood Blues.
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Finishing the SJHL regular season in first place with a 46-8-2 record, the Mustangs playoff run began with a first round win in five games over Kindersley. After that Melfort earned a sweep against Yorkton, and then took another five-game series win against Weyburn in the Canterra Seeds Cup Final, winning four games in a row after a loss in Game 1.
With the short series in the finals the Mustangs were able to get some good rest before making the trip to Calgary. After a pair of games to open the tournament on Thursday in Calgary, Melfort will be on the ice at 7:30 PM in the primetime game of opening night against the host Calgary Canucks.
Outside of Melfort and Calgary, the eight other teams in contention for the Junior A title are the Northern Manitoba Blizzard (Manitoba Junior Hockey League), Rockland Nationals (Central Canada Hockey League), Edmundston Blizzard (Maritime Hockey League), Kam River Fighting Walleye (Superior International Junior Hockey League), Trenton Golden Hawks (Ontario Junior Hockey League), Braves de Valleyfield (Quebec Junior Hockey League), Greater Sudbury Cubs (Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League), and Grand Prairie Storm (Alberta Junior Hockey League).