The Prince Albert Mintos split their two-game homestand with the Moose Jaw U18 AAA Warriors at the Art Hauser Centre this weekend.
After a win on Saturday, the Mintos lost a lopsided affair to the second place Warriors 6-1 on Sunday.
Mintos head coach Dion Antisin said the team was coming off a tough 5-3 loss to the Saskatoon Contacts, and were able to channel that energy into a victory on Saturday. On Sunday, however, he said the team did not play as well as they wanted to. “We had two hard practices of in between and we pushed the boys to play at a certain intensity and level,” Antisin said.
“Today I think we just ran out of gas because we still had glimpses of good play in the first period and we were doing things good.”
The Mintos took the lead just over a minute into the game on a power play goal from Xander Pritchard. Pritchard’s goal came on a delay of game penalty 10 seconds into the game on Warriors goalie Steven Wawryk.
The Warriors tied the game at 10:15 of the first on a power play goal by Chase Peterson. After that the game was all Warriors with Moose Jaw scoring five unanswered goals.
“We had that in the first where we were still playing our game and fast-paced and that second period we just we kind of ran out of gas early,” Antisin said. “We started watching and started second-guessing when we should go and stop.”
In the second period Moose Jaw had goals from Maxx Fuessel and Tobin Shaefer. Shaefer’s scored after the puck took an odd bounce off the stanchion and landed right in front of him.
“That is a good team that’s very offensive (and) takes advantage of that,” Antisin said. “They’re very offensive. They just play a very all-out offense game and they’re good at that and they have the skill to do it.” The Mintos were a bit under-manned over the weekend. Antisin said that team has been playing with 10 forwards for nearly a month.
“They’re pretty tired in that situation and (I’m) not making excuses for our guys,” he said. “We’re battling some stuff, so there’s going to be times when we’re tired and we have to find a way to be effective still.”
Wyatt Nelson made 51 saves for the Mintos; Wawryk made 23 saves for Moose Jaw.
Antisin said that Nelson’s play in the loss on Sunday was phenomenal.
“He gave us a chance. I told my goalies from the start of the year, if you guys give us a chance to win any game, you’ve done a great job.
“The six goals, there was a couple of skill goals and a couple of rebounds where we didn’t clear those boxes.”
Antisin said Nelson was outstanding in both games with the Warriors.
“He played phenomenal and he had a great weekend. Those were two really good games by him. We were very happy with that.
“He was good. We were very happy with how we played and we just wish we had a little bit more in front of him today that we could have given a little bit better chance.”
On Saturday, the Mintos handed the Warriors just their second loss of the season with a 4-2 win at the Art Hauser Centre.
Prince Albert led 1-0 after the first period and Moose Jaw led 2-1 after the second period, but the Mintos scored three unanswered goals in the third to get the win.
“We’re a young team, so we’re going to have those days where you don’t get those 60 minutes,” Antisin said. “Yesterday we had 60 minutes of high energy.”
In the second period, the Warriors’ Braden Nowoselski and Ryder Gilroy got Moose Jaw on the board. The Mintos pulled away in the third period with goals by Maxim Cooper, Xander Pritchard and Hazen Larson.
“We had a really good third period,” Antisin said. “We just kept playing our game and kind of making them make mistakes. Then we took advantage on two-on-one rushes and stuff. We just played hard and made them come through five guys.”
Nelson made 38 saves for the Mintos; Kaleb Page made 18 saves for the Warriors.
“They’re a good team,” Antisin said. “They’re second for a reason. They only have two losses now for a reason. They play a good way and that’s effective in their lineup.”
The Warriors are in second place with a record of 19-2-1-0 with 39 points.
As of Dec. 8, the Mintos are in seventh place in the SMAAAHL with a record of 11-10-1-0 with 23 points, a single point behind the Saskatoon Blazers. Antisin said the team is where they were hoping to be at this point in the season.
“Our goal is just to be a playoff team by Christmas and we can develop things and work on players and have them playing the right way to move forward and progress,” Antisin said.
“We’re in the mix and we want to be higher, of course. Every team does, but I think right now we’re seeing some good things every day that we’re progressing the right way.”
The Mintos return to the ice on the weekend for a home-and-home with the Saskatoon Blazers. The teams meet in Saskatoon at Rod Hamm Arena on Saturday night. The teams meet again on Sunday at the Art Hauser Centre, puck drop is 1:30 p.m.
“We’re going to have a good week of practice again and work on some things and hopefully be ready for, again, two good games against a good team,” Antisin said.
