The Prince Albert Mintos erased an early 2-0 deficit, roaring back to take down the Tisdale Trojans 7-4 on Wednesday night at the Art Hauser Centre. Jacob Cossette continued his tear, scoring three goals in the win, while Ashton Tait chipped in with two of his own.
“I think for everyone it was nice to get back on home ice,” Cossette said. “We all missed it, so we were all eager to get back out there and it felt good.”
The Trojans shocked the Mintos out of the gates, scoring two goals in the first ten minutes of the game. Jacob Cossette took a four minute double minor for kneeing just 51 seconds into the game, giving Tisdale a chance to set up shop in the offensive zone. In the second half of the man advantage, the Trojans struck for the first goal of the game.
Madden Wallis grabbed the puck near center ice and worked his way in down the right wing. He kept the puck on his forehand and sniped a shot top corner, glove side on Jayden Kraus. His sixth goal of the season put the visitors up 1-0 early in the first.
Finley Radloff added another goal for the Trojans before the midway mark, forcing the Mintos to call a quick timeout, trailing by two.
“We didn’t want to start panicking,” assistant coach Bryan Swystun said. “We knew how we wanted to play and there was a lot of game left. It was a great call by Tim (to call the timeout), and we got a quick goal right away. We started to roll from there, and the kids started to settle down.”
The timeout proved to be effective, as just 14 seconds later, Ashton Tait scored to bring Prince Albert back within one. Taking a pass from Karson Blanchette, Tait worked from left to right, cutting in front of the net and tucking a shot top corner past Cody Wilson. The rookie picked up his 19th goal of the season, making it a 2-1 score.
“I took a penalty in my first shift that gave Tisdale some momentum,” Cossette said. “They scored two quick ones, so the timeout gave us some time to settle down. So our next shift we forgot about the score, and we went out and buried one.”
With just over a minute left in the first, the Mintos went on the powerplay with a chance to tie the game, and that’s exactly what they did. Tait sent a hard pass rink wide to Jacob Cossette, who shot a one timer from his off side. Cossette’s tally evened the game at 2-2 heading into the first intermission.
Carrying over the momentum from the first period into the second, the Mintos scored another powerplay goal early. Just 3:11 into the middle frame, Zach Bansley was fed a puck from Caden Dunn, and fired a shot in to give Prince Albert their first lead of the game.
Cossette added his second goal of the game six minutes later, putting the Mintos up by a pair. Outshooting Tisdale 24-11 after two periods of play, the Mintos took a 4-2 lead into the second intermission.
Tait scored his second goal of the contest just 16 seconds into the third period on another powerplay, putting Prince Albert up by a trio, while Travis Swanson added a goal of his own later in the third. Cossette netted an empty netter to complete the hat trick to round out the scoring for the Mintos, as they hung on for a 7-4 win. Parker Dunn and Ashtyn Shields rounded out the third period scoring for the Trojans.
“I think we’re doing really good,” Cossette added. “We’ve been moving the puck really well, we’re moving the puck well. I think we’re becoming a threat to other teams.”
The win improves Prince Albert to 18-11-0-1 on the season. They head to Warman next for a road game against the Wildcats, who are the top team in the league. Their next home game is this Sunday when they welcome the Saskatoon Blazers.
@kyle_kosowan•sports@paherald.sk.ca
