Dave Leaderhouse
Special to the Herald
It has been a month since the Prince Albert Mintos last tasted victory, but on Sunday they came tantalizingly close to putting an end to their current skid when they dropped a 6-5 shootout decision to the Swift Current Legionnaires in Saskatchewan Male U18 AAA Hockey League action at the Art Hauser Centre.
“We played well the majority of the game, but they took advantage of our mistakes,” said Mintos’ head coach Dion Antisin when analyzing the club’s seventh straight loss in regular-season action and 10th overall. Prince Albert was also winless in three starts at the inaugural Saskatchewan Hockey Classic held in Saskatoon over the Christmas holidays. “It’s hard on the boys, but they know they are close.”
Things were certainly moving in the right direction on Sunday when Prince Albert built a 3-1 advantage early in the second period thanks to two goals from Madden Dell and a single from Copper Sawatzky, but goals by Trae Peterson and Mason Fauser just over a minute apart late in the middle session brought Swift Current back on even terms heading into the final frame.
Carter Wingert regained the lead for the Mintos with a nice wrap-around goal six minutes into the third period, but Kyler Bilokreli and Hunter Wilm put Prince Albert on the ropes with a pair of tallies off rebounds in the latter stages of the game.
The Mintos, however, stayed the course and their intense fore-checking paid off when Maxim Cooper banged home his own rebound with just under three minutes to play to knot the score at 5-5.
A five-minute overtime session settled nothing leaving the goaltenders to fend for themselves in the shootout, which ended when Peterson was the lone goal scorer as he got one past Minto netminder Cohen Kuntz. For Peterson, the game-winner capped a solid weekend as he had two goals an assist, in addition to the shoot-out marker, on Sunday and he added a pair of assists in Swift Current’s 5-2 decision over the Mintos on Saturday.
“I thought we played well yesterday (Saturday) too,” said Antisin. “We just had a couple of bad breaks.”
Cooper also scored for the Mintos on Saturday while Barrett Berger had the other with Prince Albert trailing 1-0 and 3-2 at the period breaks. Kuntz came on in relief of Wyatt Nelson on Saturday and stopped all nine shots he faced while on Sunday he blocked 21 of 26 Legionnaire blasts.
It was not all doom and gloom for the Mintos on the weekend as the single point salvaged from Sunday’s loss moved them into sole possession of seventh place in the league standings. In fact, the Mintos have pocketed a single point in three of their last four games as they also had extra-time decisions in their final two games –both against the Warman Wildcats – prior to the Christmas break.
One of the teams they leap-frogged in the standings – the Battlefords Stars – will be the Mintos next opponent when the two square off at 7 p.m. on Tuesday at the Art Hauser Centre. Antisin says as long as the team continues to work hard, the results will come.
“The last time we played them (Battlefords) we had a big comeback win so we just have to continue with the process,” said Antisin. “We have to keep working on the little things – the details of the game.”
