Van Taylor scored the game winning goal in the third period, while Ty Shumanski made 16 saves, as the Prince Albert Mintos picked up their first win of the month, 3-2 over the Tisdale Trojans Friday night at the Art Hauser Centre.
“The kids stayed with it,” head coach Tim Leonard said. “It’s pretty easy to lose your confidence and want to pack it in, but I thought they stuck with it. The good thing about the game was that it was our secondary scoring that got it done tonight.”
The Trojans may have found themselves lucky to head into the first intermission tied at 0-0. The Mintos continued to have terrible puck luck, with multiple bounces going the wrong way. Three different goal mouth scrambles resulted in pucks jumping over sticks and away from the Tisdale goal. Cody Wilson made some phenomenal saves in goal for the Trojans, who were outshot 12-4 in the opening frame. Ashton Tait had a pair of great chances to open the scoring for the Mintos, but Wilson stood tall to the task, keeping the game deadlocked after 20 minutes.
Tisdale opened the scoring in the second period on a powerplay that carried over from the first. Parker Dunn took advantage of the extra ice, taking a pass from Simon Martin and burying a shot past Ty Shumanski. After spending most of the first period hemmed in their own zone, the Trojans quickly got on the board in the second to pull in front.
Karson Blanchette tie things back up just under four minutes into the middle frame. After spending most of the first period throwing his weight around, the forward beat Wilson clean with his 11th goal of the season. After he had a chance in the first to put the Mintos on the board, he redeemed himself with the tying goal early in the second.
Tait also redeemed himself in the second period, putting the Mintos up 2-1 with 11:23 to go. A loose puck near the goal mouth was snatched by Tait, who put a shot past Wilson, who didn’t have time to react in the mad scramble. The rookie’s 25th goal of the season put the Mintos on top for the first time in the contest, making it a 2-1 game.
A point shot from Martin tied things back up with 5:22 left in the second. After Shumanski made an awkward save, the puck came back to the blueline. With Shumanski on his backside, Martin blasted a shot through traffic that the goaltender had no chance to save. Martin’s third tally of the season made things interesting again, tying the game at 2-2.
“We wanted to stick with it for the third period,” Leonard said. “We wanted to force (Tisdale) and we wanted to get pucks in deep. The first and second period are investments, and the third period is the payoff. We weren’t going to change anything, and there was no sense in panicking.”
Van Taylor put the Mintos back on top with 10:49 left in regulation. Ryland Martin sent a pass to the right wall for the forward, and he made no mistake, burying his sixth goal of the season top shelf. After a dominant start to the final frame, Prince Albert retook the lead, going up 3-2.
Shumanski went a perfect nine for nine in the third, stopping all shots thrown his way, as the Mintos hung on for the win, improving to 22-15-0-2.
“They hate losing, and so do I,” Leonard laughed. “That’s a common thing here. It should hurt a little bit to lose, but at the end of the day, we were in those games that we lost. It’s not from a lack of effort, our work ethic was good. Sometimes bounces and pucks don’t go our way. I’m happy that we came out with a win tonight.”
The Mintos are back in action on Sunday afternoon at the Art Hauser Centre to take on the Yorkton Maulers. Puck drop is at 1:30pm.
@kyle_kosowan•sports@paherald.sk.ca