By Laurence Heinen /

After compiling an impressive 8-1-2 record in October, the Melville Millionaires started off November in similar fashion.

After 4-1 and 6-3 road wins over the La Ronge Ice Wolves on the weekend of Nov. 7-8, the Millionaires improved their record to a Sherwood Conference best 15-2-2-0.

“We’re not overly flashy and we don’t wow teams much, but we do try to play 60 minutes, try not to cheat on defence and try to get pucks deep where we can use our physical size down low and create offence to get pucks to the net,” Melville head coach Jamie Fiesel told sjhl.com.

As of Nov. 9, a trio of 20-year-old forwards in Daniel Hope, Levi Lind and Kale Dolinski were sitting 1-2-3 in team scoring.

“I had my veterans come back and they came back in good shape,” Fiesel said. “They were ready to pick up where we left off as far as systems.”

The veterans have bought into the team-first attitude that Fiesel preaches and it has served the squad well so far.

“They kind of parked their egos at the door and decided to play some team hockey,” Fiesel said. “If you can get a team to do that or if they decide to do that more or less at the start of the year, it really helps out.”

The Mills have had success this season playing five forwards on the power play with Lind and 19-year-old forward Logan Herauf manning the points.

“Lind and Herauf are very good back there,” Fiesel said. “They handle the puck well. Lind back there used to play defence. It’s not really that much of a gamble. He’s pretty solid back there. It’s not maybe as risky as one might think.”

With their solid showing in October, the Mills moved into top spot ahead of the Humboldt Broncos in the SJHL’s Power Rankings as of Nov. 7.

The players have bought into the coaching staff’s philosophies and have worked hard at “doing those simple things well,” Fiesel said.

“Overall it’s a good group of guys who are working hard and they’re getting results,” said the Melville bench boss.