John MacNeil
Daily Herald
Cohen Kuntz showed he can deliver in both tight and lopsided games as he backstopped the Prince Albert Mintos to a pair of weekend victories over the Notre Dame Hounds at the Art Hauser Centre.
The 16-year-old goaltender made 38 saves Sunday afternoon in a 5-3 win and earned player-of-the-game honours for a second straight day. The night before, Kuntz recorded his first U18 AAA shutout, with 32 stops in a 9-0 victory.
His mindset didn’t change from one game to the next.
“You’ve got to be consistent, with preparation and everything,” said Kuntz, welcoming the challenge of a busy weekend between the pipes. “I love playing hockey. I love playing good games.”
Kuntz has played all three regular-season games for the Mintos (2-1) a week into the Saskatchewan Male AAA Hockey League schedule. His goaltending partner, Will Shaw, has been sidelined with a concussion suffered in the final pre-season contest.
Kuntz is applying some of the lessons he learned during training camps in September with the WHL’s Lethbridge Hurricanes and the SJHL’s Humboldt Broncos.
“The camp went really well,” he said about his stint with Lethbridge, which drafted him in 2025. “I think everyone was happy with me and I really liked it there. Then, coming here (to Prince Albert), everything has been really good so far. No complaints.”
During his pre-season stint at Humboldt’s junior A camp, the six-foot-two, 195-pound Kuntz became that much more connected to a familiar team he followed closely as a child.
“It was cool, because you grow up watching these guys play and you cheer for them, and then you get to play for them,” he said. “It was pretty cool.”
As oddities go, it’s hard to beat the scenario that unfolded at Lethbridge’s major junior camp as Kuntz was one of two goalies with the same surname.
Trip Kuntz is a 15-year-old goaltending prospect with those same Hurricanes.
“I don’t even know if we’re technically related or not, but I knew him a little bit,” Cohen Kuntz said. “He’s a big social-media guy. And, during Lethbridge’s camp, I was talking with him. He’s a really great guy.”
The Kuntz boys now share another oddity in that they both recorded their first U18 AAA shutout on the same night. Trip stopped 36 shots Saturday as the Moose Jaw Warriors blanked the Tisdale Trojans 8-0.
Tisdale is the next opponent for the Mintos, who welcome the Trojans to the Art Hauser Centre on Thursday night. Tisdale received a boost this week as 16-year-old forward Kash Elke has returned from the WHL’s Moose Jaw Warriors. Elke was Moose Jaw’s first-round draft choice in 2025. His teammates with the U15 AA Humboldt Broncos included Cohen Kuntz.
In the Mintos’ victory Sunday, Madden Dell potted two first-period goals — one of them on a power play — as part of his three-point afternoon. Ethan Janzen and Caleb Philp each added a goal and an assist. Philp’s third goal of the season proved to be the winner, and it came during a two-man advantage midway through the game.
Max Cooper scored early in the third period to put Prince Albert ahead 5-1. Notre Dame fought back with a couple of power-play goals, including a last-minute tally.
Alex Abbott, Paul Abrametz and Arclo Barclay scored for the Hounds.
Notre Dame goaltender Cooper Schmidt stopped 35 of the 40 shots he faced.
While the Hounds are off to an 0-2 start this season, they saw an appreciable difference from Saturday to Sunday during their Prince Albert visit.
The Hounds’ veterans met after their shutout loss and shared their thoughts with the rest of the team.
“We just had to talk about what we need to do and be positive on the bench, stuff like that,” said 17-year-old centre Lucas Romaniuk. “Finish our checks, be hard, be physical.
“Yeah, we did (see considerable improvement Sunday). Definitely a lot better. We’re a good team. We just have to bond a little more. Because I think we’re a playoff team, for sure. We just haven’t shown it yet.
“(The Mintos) are well put together. They have good systems and stuff. Once we get rolling, we’ll be good.”
The Hounds host the Mintos this weekend in Wilcox for games Saturday night and Sunday afternoon.
Romaniuk and his younger brother Lincoln, a 2010-born defenceman with the Hounds, are from White City.
“Me and him are one year apart, so every second year we’re usually together,” said the older Romaniuk. “But we haven’t been together in probably three years, so it’s good to be back on the same team. He used to be my winger, but he plays defence now. He’s a really good defenceman.”
Lucas Romaniuk is among just half-a-dozen returning players with the U18 AAA Hounds. The junior A Weyburn Red Wings’ prospect also attended the Brandon Wheat Kings’ WHL camp this fall.
“I’m a 200-foot centre,” he said. “So, I’m good defensively, I can create offensive-zone chances, I’m a playmaker, but if I need to shoot, I can shoot.
“I was with Weyburn in pre-season, and at Brandon’s camp, and now I’m back here. Hopefully, a Dub team can pick me up soon.”
In their nine-goal rout Saturday, the Mintos scored four power-play goals and fired 50-plus shots. Sean Lavoie’s three points included two goals.
Cooper Sawatzky, with three assists, and Staiden Parenteau, with a goal and an assist, generated offence from the blueline.
Prince Albert’s other goals came from Philp, Cooper, Janzen, Noah Gibson, Burke Whitter and Axton Snow-Hayes, with his first U18 AAA goal. Dell and Linden Abercrombie added two assists apiece.
Lavoie and Whitter earned recognition as the hardest-working Mintos in the games Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
