Mintos split weekend road trip

Daily Herald File Photo Zane Florence of the Prince Albert Mintos skates past Tristan Sgrosso of the Notre Dame Hounds at the Art Hauser Centre last season.

As the Prince Albert Mintos prepare for a busy month of December, they find themselves in a good spot in an extremely close Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League standings.

Following a 3-2 road win over the Yorkton Maulers Sunday, which came 24 hours after a 4-0 shutout loss to the Regina Pat Canadians, the Mintos are tied with the Pat Canadians for fourth place in the league table with a 13-8 record.

“We have a decent record so far and we’re still seeing room for improvement, which is what you want as a coach,” Mintos bench boss Danton Danielson said.

“As we look ahead, the biggest thing we are focused on is our consistency and making sure that the guys are continuing to learn. We’re getting better each day at the things that we want to do well as a team.”

Dawson Springer and Zane Florence led the way for the Mintos on Sunday with a goal and an assist each, while Chase Pauls also scored for the visitors and Joel Favreau made 22 saves.

“It was good to see Zane get on the score sheet and get that first career Midget AAA goal,” Danielson said. “He had a really good weekend and it was nice to see him get rewarded like that.

“I thought the score might not have done us justice as we had a number of scoring chances that we didn’t cash in on. We did a good job of controlling the play, but we did allow a couple of odd-man rushes that Yorkton took advantage of.”

Massen Ziola scored both goals for the 3-17-1-0 Maulers, who received a 28-save showing from Kael DePape.

Saturday’s trip to Regina was a tough one for the Mintos as they could only muster 15 shots at Pat Canadians netminder Drayden Ramage.

“You have to give full credit to Regina as they have a really good hockey team down there, especially with (Spokane Chiefs prospect Blake) Swetlikoff back in the mix for them,” Danielson said.

“They have two solid lines now that other teams have to deal with and I think that they are a good example of the type of team we want to be like going forward.”

Swetlikoff led the way for the 12-5-0-2 Pat Canadians with a pair of goals, while Hunter Degelman had a goal and an assist each.

Cal Caragata, who leads the league in scoring with 37 points in 19 games, had the other goal for the hosts.

The Mintos will return to the Art Hauser Centre on Sunday afternoon for their third meeting with the Pat Canadians in the last two weeks.

They will then visit the Saskatoon Contacts on Tuesday, Dec. 3 before hosting the Notre Dame Argos on Saturday, Dec. 7 and Sunday, Dec. 8.

-Advertisement-