It took nearly 50 minutes for the Prince Albert Mintos offence to find their range on Tuesday, but when they did there was little stopping them.
The Mintos trailed the visiting Battlefords Stars 4-1 with less than 12 minutes to play in the third but roared back with four unanswered goals for a 5-4 regulation win at the Art Hauser Centre.
“It was nuts,” said defenceman Barret Berger, whose goal with 3:02 to play tied the game at four, and set the stage for Staiden Parenteau’s winner less than a minute later. “(We’re) just a really close group of guys, and we just rallied together and got the win, but it was scary the whole game.”
The Mintos looked done and dusted when Battlefords forward Noah Larre fired a wrist shot over the shoulder of Prince Albert starting goaltender Wyatt Nelson a little over five minutes into the third period.
The goal was Battlefords’ second of the frame, and gave them a 4-1 lead with 14:35 to play.
Mintos coach Dion Antisin responded by pulling Nelson, and inserting first-year Minto Jaden Blanchette. The move seemed to motive the Prince Albert club.
“It’s tough,” Antisin said afterwards. “Nelson played a hell of a game for us. He made some big saves. On that second goal in the third, it was just ‘we need a jump. We need a change of pace.’ We threw in Blanche and that just gave us that little extra spark we needed.”
Besides swapping the goalies, Antisin said they stuck with their game plan in the third period. He said the Mintos kept working hard, and were rewarded.
“We just said on the bench, ‘keep playing out (style of) hockey. Go to the net. Shoot pucks. Get the pucks to the D. Let them shoot’ and it worked out. We just battled hard in that last 20 and the bounces did go our way in the end.”
Minto forward Xander Pritchard benefited the most from those bounces. When Battlefords turned the puck over after goaltender Luke Norman wandered behind the net, it was Pritchard who corralled the loose puck in the slot and fired it into an open net to make it 4-2.
Pritchard was in the right spot again minutes later, fighting off a Stars defenceman and nearly bowling over Norman to get to a loose puck that squeaked through the Battlefords goaltender’s equipment and sat inches from the goal line.
The two goals came less than two minutes apart, and gave Prince Albert plenty of momentum heading into the final minutes.
“He (Pritchard) has probably been one of our most consistent forwards, just with work ethic and doing the little things right all the time,” Antisin said. “He loves going to the net and using his big body.
“It’s really nice to see him get rewarded for that effort he puts in every day and that sacrifice because going to those areas hurts a little bit. He did a great job just leading by example.”
Berger benefited from a few bounces too. The Minto defenceman’s second period goal came off a bad bounce that had Norman looking the other way while Berger scooped up a loose puck in front of the net and scored.
Berger was all along in front again for the game tying goal in the third after receiving a centring pass from Sean Lavoie.
For the third straight time, a Minto player fired the puck into an open net. The last two goals came with the goalie pulled.
“It was just luck,” Berger said when asked about his goal. “I just saw the pass coming, and I was hoping I wouldn’t miss it.”
With Battlefords still reeling, Parenteau completed the comeback with his first goal of the season. The Minto defenceman fired a wrist shot from just inside the blue line that evaded a screened Norman and clanged off the goal post and in.
While the Mintos celebrated, the Stars stood in stunned silence.
The win snapped Prince Albert’s two-game losing streak, and sent them into December on a winning note. While emotions were high outside the dressing room after the game, both Berger and Antisin said the club has a lot to work on.
The Mintos fell behind 2-0 in the first during their 3-2 overtime loss to the Saskatoon Contacts on Nov. 20, and trailed 3-1 after 20 in their 6-2 loss to Warman on Nov. 22.
The Mintos trailed 2-0 after one period again on Tuesday. Antisin said the comeback win is great, but the Mintos can’t keep giving up early goals.
“It’s sort of a bad habit of ours right now,” he said. “We’ve had some tough starts, so we’re going to talk about it as a group and see what the mindset is going into games, and try and switch some things around that might work. Knowing that we can play this good and come back in games is great, but to get out to a good start and have the lead would be better for us in the long run.”
“We’ve been struggling with it though for the last few games, just coming out flat,” Berger added. “I don’t know what it is, if we’re just warming up at the wrong time or what or some guys just aren’t doing what they need to do before the game, but hopefully we can figure it out.”
News and Notes:
• Assistant Captain Liam Myre was out of the Minto lineup on Tuesday. He was replaced by Lennon Fetterly.
• Nelson stopped 19 of the 23 shots he faced in a little over 45 minutes of action. Blanchette stopped all seven shots he faced in relief. Norman made 28 saves in the Battlefords goal.
• Noah Larre led the way for Battlefords with two goals. Kobi Weber and Millar Kramer also scored for the Stars.
