Melfort, SK – September 26, 2025
The La Ronge Ice Wolves battled hard but came up just short Friday night, dropping a 4–3 overtime decision to the Melfort Mustangs at Northern Lights Palace.
It was a night of momentum swings, as La Ronge led 3–1 late in the second period before Melfort clawed back to tie it and eventually win on a Zayden Sadlemyer goal in overtime.
After the Mustangs opened the scoring midway through the first, the Ice Wolves answered quickly. Forward Waylon Gardipy scored his first goal of the season at 17:20 to even things up, with David Vitt collecting the assist.
The second period belonged to La Ronge. First, Vitt notched his first goal of the season on the power play at 9:42, finishing a setup from Owen Turner and Oliver Christiansen. Then Gardipy struck again with his second of the game late in the frame, burying a feed from Vitt and Kasen Harrold to give the Wolves a 3–1 lead.
But Melfort wouldn’t go away. Sadlemyer scored on a power play less than a minute into the third, then Owen Nelson tied the game at 5:05. That set the stage for overtime, where Sadlemyer completed his hat trick at 3:52 to hand La Ronge the loss.
Wolves goaltender Riley Zezel stopped 32 of 36 shots. La Ronge finished the night with 16 shots, going 1-for-1 on the power play.
Vitt (1G, 2A) and Gardipy (2G) led the Ice Wolves offensively.
