Dave Leaderhouse
Special to the Herald
For a team coming off a pair of stinging losses in which they were outscored by a combined score of 16-4 one would think another setback would only add to the misery, but that was not the case in the Prince Albert Mintos 4-3 overtime loss to the Warman Wildcats in Saskatchewan Male Under 18 AAA Hockey League action on Thursday at the Art Hauser Centre.
“Last weekend was a tough weekend,” admitted Mintos’ head coach Dion Antisin, “but we came back and worked on the defensive zone. We did the game right tonight, but we need to bring that every night.”
Things didn’t get off on the right foot for the Mintos on Thursday as Warman’s Weston Kostiuk banked a shot past Prince Albert netminder Cohen Kuntz just 26 seconds into the game. Kuntz, a 15-year-old affiliate player from Humboldt, who was making just his second start with the Mintos after beginning the year with the Saskatoon Blazers, would finish the game with 37 saves.
“He rebounded well after that,” acknowledged Antisin. “He didn’t let that first one get to him.”
Cruz Stacey would square the game at 1-1 later in the opening frame, just moments after the Mintos had enjoyed a two-man advantage for more than a minute, and Sean Lavoie would stake Prince Albert to its only lead midway through the second, but that was short-lived.
With time running out in the middle session, and the Wildcats enjoying their first power play of the evening, Koston Biliski banged in a rebound from close range to knot the score at 2-2 and set the stage for an exciting final 20 minutes of regulation time.
Already missing Cohen Greenwood and Emmett Kihn from the line-up, the Mintos would also have to finish the game without the services of Liam Myhre, who reinjured a shoulder in the second period, but that is when Kuntz raised his level of play.
Kuntz faced 14 shots in the final 20 minutes and he stopped all but one, a shot from Dade Wotherspoon, who beat him cleanly with a blast from the left face-off circle with just under four minutes to play.
Prince Albert didn’t fold, however, as some great work behind the net by Carter Wingert set up Xander Pritchard with his team-leading 12th goal of the season with just 34 seconds remaining on the clock.
The extra session, unfortunately, was pretty lopsided in favor of the Wildcats and it would have ended sooner than it did if not for a pair of splendid saves by Kuntz, who was left all alone to face a pair of Warman shooters in front of the Prince Albert net.
Dawson Gamble put the finishing touches on Warman’s 14th win of the season when he notched the Wildcats’ second power-play marker of the game with just 2:11 remaining in the five-minute overtime period.
“The power-play and penalty-kill are huge in this league and we lost that battle tonight,” said Antisin. “We still need to work on that and develop them.”
“We’re a young team and we are trying to learn to play the right way,” added Antisin.
The point gained from the overtime loss, however, moves the Mintos to within one of both the Tisdale Trojans and Battlefords Stars, who currently occupy the final two playoff spots.
The game was the final home match for Prince Albert prior to the Christmas break, but the Mintos and Wildcats will meet once again on Sunday in Warman before each team competes in a major tournament over the holiday break. The Mintos will be in Saskatoon from Dec. 26-31 for the inaugural Saskatchewan Hockey Classic while the Wildcats will travel to Calgary during the same time frame for the annual Circle K Classic (formerly known as the Mac’s Invitational).
Next home action for the Mintos will be January 3-4 when the Swift Current Legionnaires make their only visit of the season to the Art Hauser Centre.
