As the Prince Albert Mintos gear up for the fourth game of their Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League exhibition schedule Thursday night at 7 p.m. against the Battlefords Stars at the Art Hauser Centre, their roster for the 2019-20 campaign was starting to become a little clearer.
“More of the teams in our league are starting to settle into their lineups as we get closer to opening night,” Mintos head coach Danton Danielson said.
“As a result, we’re moving more from an evaluation mode into a preparation mode with only a couple of games left until our home opener on the 21st against the Stars.”
The Mintos had a 1-2 record heading into Thursday’s game, as they lost a 5-0 affair to the Stars in North Battleford last Saturday, dropped a 3-2 decision to the host Tisdale Trojans Sunday and picked up an 8-0 road triumph over the Beardy’s Blackhawks Tuesday.
“It’s been three totally different games as the makeup of the rosters for our team and our opponents were in various stages each time out,” Danielson said. “We had a really young squad with a number of bantam aged players in North Battleford and we were against a strong veteran side from the Stars, who were very deserving of the win.
“It was more of a balanced game against Tisdale as we were both fairly young and then Beardy’s had more of a younger lineup on Tuesday as they started their pre-season a little later than the rest of us. On our side, about two-thirds of our lineup were guys that were new to the Mintos or hadn’t played at this level before, with the rest of the roster featuring some of our veterans.”
Cooper Chisholm has led the way for the Mintos so far in pre-season play with five points in two games, while Kody Willick and Gage Helm have three points.
Prospects Noah Martens and Dylan Marshall got the start in goal against the Stars and the Trojans, while Joel Favreau was in between the pipes for Tuesday’s tilt with the Blackhawks.
Following tonight’s contest, the Mintos will host the Blackhawks on Tuesday and will entertain the Saskatoon Blazers on Wednesday in 7 p.m. matchups at the Art Hauser Centre.
Their regular season slate will begin at home on Saturday, Sept. 21 against the Stars, with a matchup against the Swift Current Legionnaires taking place the following day.
Both of those games will get underway at 1:30 p.m. at the Art Hauser Centre.
