After finding themselves down 3-1 in the second period the Prince Albert Mintos came all the way back and defeated the visiting Estevan Bears on Saturday night at the Art Hauser Centre.
The Mintos were coming off of a 5-0 loss on Thursday to the Saskatoon Contacts on the road and the game served to help the team get back on track according to assistant coach Bryan Swystun.
“We have been struggling lately and mentally we are trying to get in the right place and the way that we came back and battled back after being down 3-1 and probably not very sharp in the first period. It said a lot about our kid’s character they put a lot of pressure on themselves to perform and to win and it was nice for them to get rewarded tonight,” Swystun said.
Jye Zawaskty had a pair of goals in the first and second periods with Kole Keen adding the other Estevan goal before Prince Albert came back. Carter Olsen had the Mintos lone goal in the first period.
Owen Nelson scored the eventual game winner early in the third period.
Van Taylor and Abinet Klassen each scored on the power play in the second period to tie the game.
Ashton Tait added a pair of assists for the Mintos.
Swystun pointed to contributions throughout the lineup in the win.
“We had contributions from everybody, our fourth line, which included an AP which we thought played very well, Keestin Danielson and we got contributions in all three zones from all four lines and it made a huge difference for us,” Swystun said.
A little work in the defensive zone helped change the momentum in the second according to Swystun.
“We had some success working their defence in their end and got some scoring chances off of it and that kind of titled the ice in our favour,” he said.
Keeping things simple in the game was also a key.
“We said simplicity is probably the best thing, don’t try and do too much, we wanted to move pucks quickly through the neutral zone on transition, on any turnovers get it deep in their end and go to work and that seemed to pay off,” Swystun said.
Jayden Kraus made 14 saves for the Mintos; Kaden Perron made 27 saves for the Bears.
The win improved the Mintos record to 13-14-0-2 with 28 points.
The two teams meet again on Sunday afternoon at the Art Hauser Centre, puck drop is 1:30 p.m.
