The Prince Albert Mintos earned a weekend split in Yorkton, capturing a 4-2 Saturday victory followed by a 3-2 setback on Sunday afternoon.
Mintos Assistant Coach Bryan Swystun says that Prince Albert is happy with the result.
“I thought we played very well. We competed hard. It’s a tough rink to play in. I thought we were the more physical team and took pucks hard to the net, their goaltending played very well which kept things close. Our guys battled hard. We walked away holding our heads up pretty high.”
It took a strong third period effort for the Mintos to come away with a victory on Saturday night.
Tyler Gudjonson would open the scoring for Yorkton with 7:03 remaining in the first period.
The Mintos would answer with Konnor Watson’s ninth goal of the campaign just over two and a half minutes into the second period. Less than a minute later, Boston Schmidt would restore the Yorkton lead with his first goal of the season to give the Maulers a 2-1 advantage after 40 minutes.
The third period would be all Mintos as Prince Albert would score three unanswered goals in the final 20 minutes. Owen Nelson would strike with 17:43 remaining to tie the score at 2-2. Carter Cole would get the go-ahead marker for the Mintos with just 2:19 remaining in the third period to make it 3-2 Prince Albert.
Owen Dyck would add an empty netter in the dying seconds to secure a 4-2 Minto victory.
Jayden Kraus earned the victory in net for the Mintos, turning aside 19 of 21 Yorkton shots in the win.
Swystun says the Mintos are at a point where the team knows when they are playing well, without input from the coaching staff.
“I think we are getting the point that our kids figure out on their own when they have to step things up amongst themselves. Tim and I gave them some direction, they knew we were playing well enough to be ahead and to win the game. They went out and had a great third period and scored three goals and we walked away with the win.”
Sunday afternoon’s game saw the Mintos and Maulers trade goals in the first two periods.
Edward Knittig opened the scoring just under five minutes into the first period for Yorkton with his eigth goal of the season. Konnor Watson would respond for the Mintos with a power play goal with 11:04 remaining in the first period.
The Mintos would pull ahead in the second period with an unassisted goal from Logan Pickford with 7:11 remaining in the second period. Leo Jewitt would tie the game two minutes later with a power play goal,
The Mintos and Maulers entered the third period tied at 2-2 but the Maulers would find the go ahead marker just over five minutes into the final frame.
Alex Morrison would give Yorkton a 3-2 lead with his fourth goal of the season with 14:46 remaining. The Mintos could not find the equalizer as Yorkton would hold on for a 3-2 victory.
Blake Sittler earned the win in net for Yorkton stopping 26 of 28 Minto shots while Brady Holtvogt took the loss in net for the Mintos stopping 22 of 25 Yorkton shots.
The Mintos now have three games remaining before they take a pause for the league’s Christmas break. Swystun says the Mintos are excited to see how their defensive style will match up with Saskatoon and Warman
“The Tisdale game is our last game with them, we know what we can expect with them, and we match up well. We’re excited for the other two teams because we haven’t played them yet. We worked very hard to get to where we are right now. We’re excited to put our style of game up against teams that we haven’t seen yet. We worked a lot on defense, we don’t allow a lot of goals. These teams that we are going to be facing score a lot. It’s going to be us and our defensive style against them and their offensive prowess.”
The Mintos return to action on Wednesday, Dec. 14 when they travel to Tisdale to take on the Trojans.
@nathanreiter14 • sports@paherald.sk.ca
