The Prince Albert Mintos erased a two-goal, third period deficit and added the winner in overtime to beat the Saskatoon Contacts 3-2 at the Art Hauser Centre on Wednesday.
Carter Bergen led the way with two goals for Prince Albert, including the game tying goal with seven seconds left in regulation, and Brock Kolibab added the winner with 1:26 to play in overtime.
“We played a bit shaky the first two periods, but (in) the third we picked it up and squeaked out a ‘dub’, so that’s all that matters,” Kolibab said afterwards.
Both teams entered Wednesday’s contest after lengthy layoffs. It was the first game on Prince Albert’s scheduled since a 6-1 loss to Regina on Nov. 17, while the Contacts were playing for the first time since Nov. 21 after two games against the Yorkton Maulers were postponed due to bad weather.
Head coach Doan Smith said the long layoff didn’t impact the Mintos, who improved to 13-5-2 with the win. He said the team has been resilient all year, and that continued on Wednesday.
“We’ve been in a couple of these instances where we’re down and we’ve got to claw back,” Smith said. “’Just don’t panic’ is the message. We’ve got tons of offence, and we’ve got 20 guys that can contribute: 18 of them offensively and two that can stop the puck.
“We know that we can turn around a game at any time, no matter what time we’re in, so it (the message) was just don’t panic. Don’t worry about it. Stick to the process, which we did, and we got some good individual efforts late that carried us through.”
Kayden Stroeder and Samuel Wardell had the goals for the Contacts, while Nick Goodwin made 31 saves in the Saskatoon goal. Jordan Henry made 32 saves to earn the win for Prince Albert, and was named Minto star of the game for his efforts.
The two teams played a scoreless first, but the Contacts broke the game open with two goals in the second, outshooting the Mintos 25-15 through the first two periods. Despite trailing after 40 minutes, Smith and Kolibab said the team was still confident.
“Even through the first 40, I didn’t think we were bad,” Smith said. “We’ve got to capitalize on chances. We’ve got to bear down in certain areas of the ice, but coming off of a nine-day break like we had, we showed push back.
“Our older guys, they can turn it on at any second. We’ve just to continue to find the consistency in our play and utilize our strengths to our advantage.”
“The message (in the second intermission) was ‘we can score goals’ and we proved it in the third,” Kolibab added. “That’s how we pushed back and got the win.”
The Contacts opened the scoring midway through the second. Stroeder took advantage of a Minto defenceman stumbling to head in on a breakaway and beat Henry glove side to make it 1-0.
Wardell extended the Saskatoon lead three minutes later on the power play when he slapped a rebound past a sprawling Henry shortly after a failed Minto clearing attempt.
The Contacts had a chance to make it 3-0 when Kohen Volk’s point shot hit the crossbar on a 5-on-3 power play. The officials then waved off a Saskatoon goal seconds later for goaltender interference.
Bergen made it 2-1 roughly two-and-a-half minutes into the third period with his first of the night. The Minto forward took a rink-wide pass from Austin Root, crossed the blue line, cut into the slot, and beat Goodwin glove side through a maze of players.
The score remained unchanged until the final minute when Bergen broke up a Saskatoon clearing attempt, carried the puck into the slot and, and beat Goodwin glove side again with 7.3 seconds remaining.
Both teams had chances to end the game in overtime before Kolibab’s winner. Wardell took advantage of another Minto defenceman stumbling to head in on a partial breakaway, but was turned aside by Henry. The Mintos had their own chance roughly two minutes later when Luke Senick broke in all alone, but Goodwin made the save.
With less than two minutes to play in the extra frame, Minto forward Kanyan Unger grabbed a loose puck, circled in the slot, and fired a shot on goal. Goodwin made the save, but the puck fell right in front of Kolibab, who fired the rebound into a wide open net.
The Mintos are back in action on Saturday when they travel to Swift Current to face the Legionnaires. Puck drop is 7:30 p.m. at the Innovationplex.
