The Prince Albert Mintos couldn’t secure a weekend sweep against the Regina Pat Canadians as they fell 4-1 at the Art Hauser Centre on Sunday afternoon.
Minto head coach Tim Leonard says Prince Albert has not had some breaks go their way as of recently.
“I thought we played good. Not much puck luck with us. It bounces over our sticks and it bounces to theirs. This is a resilient group, they don’t let it affect them. I like what I saw this weekend, if that’s the best of the best in the league, we can play with them.”
Regina would score the lone goal of the first period just under four minutes in as Ryan McDonald would record his 8th of the campaign. Noah Asmundson and Colten Bridgeman recorded the assist on the goal.
The Mintos capitalized on a poor Regina line change late in the second period as Konnor Watson would get a breakaway opportunity and the leading scorer for the Mintos made no mistake to even the score at 1-1 with just 1:33 remaining in the middle frame.
The Pat Canadians would catch a break with just seven seconds remaining in the second period as Colten Bridgeman’s point shot would redirect off a Minto body and past a sprawling Jayden Kraus to give Regina a 2-1 lead after 40 minutes
Regina led the shots 24-16 after two periods of play.
With 10:35 remaining in the third, Regina would take advantage of a power play opportunity after Roper Blanchard was sent off for tripping. Nolan Stevenson’s point shot beat Kraus top shelf to double the Pat Canadian lead to 3-1.
Regina would add an empty netter to make the final score 4-1.
Leonard says he is happy with the weekend performance of the Mintos overall.
“It’s one thing we did this weekend is we proved we can play with them. I asked them all in that locker room if they felt like we were getting better, and they all agreed. That’s all they can do is keep working hard, we’ve practiced and we want to get better and I feel we are heading in the right direction.”
THe Mintos return to action on Wednesday night when they welcome the Tisdale Trojans to the Art Hauser Centre.
sports@paherald.sk.ca
