The Prince Albert Mintos had a weekend to forget losing both games in a home-and-home to the Saskatoon Blazers.
The Mintos closed the weekend on Sunday with a 7-2 loss to the Blazers at the Art Hauser Centre. Saskatoon took the first game 9-2 in Saskatoon on Saturday.
“I guess we probably had that loss from yesterday in our mind and we lost this game before the puck dropped,” Mintos head coach Dion Antisin said after the loss on Sunday. “Mentally we weren’t in it, physically we weren’t in it. You saw just little mistakes that we usually don’t make happen today and that’s not something we can do.”
Antisin said that they attempted to use Saturday’s loss as motivation on Sunday but it seemingly did not work.
“We held it on our leaders a lot yesterday to just push and be better today and we didn’t get the bounce back and the call that we wanted so it’s tough,” he said. “We got three days of practice for one minute so we’re going to focus on some things watch some video and get better for the next one.”
On Sunday, the Blazers led 2-0 after the first period and 5-1 after the second period.
Cruz Stacey scored for the Mintos 31 seconds into the second period on the power play. Prince Albert also had a late goal by Carter Wingert, who scored 9:02 into the third period.
Lucas Stevenson and Blaise Baier scored for the Blazers in the first, Tyson Medernach, Brock Kolibab and Oliver Husnik scored for Saskatoon in the second period. Third period goals for Saskatoon were scored by Tatum Fouquette and Jack Frisky.
Wyatt Nelson made 27 saves for Prince Albert; Reid Wasserman made 14 saves for Saskatoon.
On Saturday at Rod Hamm Arena the Blazers led 3-1 after the first period and 5-1 after the second period.
Antisin said that on Saturday the Mintos put forth more effort.
“We just didn’t get bounces yesterday,” he said. “I mean, we battled hard they got a couple goals here and there. We mismanaged a couple of mistakes in that game early, and that’s where the 3-1 lead came from.”
Maxim Cooper scored in the first period for the Mintos. Xander Pritchard added the other Prince Albert goal in the third period.
“We played hard,” Antisin said. “We caused them to play hard too, and that’s where we want to play. We want to have five guys, try and beat five of our guys and yesterday we did that.
We played the style that we wanted to.”
Husnik, Shaan Basram and Kash Ringdal scored for the Blazers in the first period.
Baier and Medernach scored for Saskatoon in the second period, Baier, Frisky, Troy Shewchuk and Eric Grandberg scored for Saskatoon in the third period.
Jaden Blanchette made seven saves for the Mintos in the first period before he was replaced by Nelson who made 16 saves; the Blazers’ Madex Kabrud made 36 saves. Antisin said he liked the push to register over 30 shots on Saturday.
“We just didn’t get enough in tight. We had about 10 in tight. We need to get about 20 in tight there,” Antisin said.
On Sunday, the Mintos also struggled to get shots in close.
“Today it was just, we didn’t want to be out there,” he said.
Antisin was not sure if being a young team and close to the Holiday break was the issue.
“We have got two more games against Warman and then we got five days off and then we’re right back into the tournament down at Saskatoon,” he said. “Maybe the guys are looking forward to that and thinking a little bit far ahead.”
He added that the team has to learn to get better as players develop for the next level.
“At junior you don’t get those (chances),” he said. “If you have a bad game, you might sit the next three. You got to learn to bring your best every night and not look to the future and not look to the past too much. You just got to play in the present.
“That’s something these guys need to learn. We’re a young team. We got a couple vets and we’re learning. We got to do those things and learn from our mistakes because we’re going to have a lot of them.”
The Mintos are one of three SMAAAHL teams taking part in the inaugural U18AAA Saskatchewan Hockey Classic tournament from Boxing Day until Dec. 31 at Merlis Belsher Place in Saskatoon.
The new tournament – which is designed to showcase U18AAA players at a world-class facility in Saskatoon – will debut with teams from Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Alberta.
Pool A will feature: Saskatoon Blazers, Eastman Selects (U18AAA Manitoba) and Estevan Bears. Pool B will include the Mintos, Grand Peace Athletic Club (U18AAA Alberta, Grande Prairie), and Tisdale Trojans.
With a three-game guarantee and the semi-finals on Dec. 30, the final will be Dec. 31.
As of Dec. 15, the Mintos are in ninth place in the SMAAAHL with a record of 11-12-1-0 with 23 points.
The Mintos return to the ice on Thursday at the Art Hauser Centre against the Warman Wolverines, puck drop is 7 p.m. The teams meet again to close out the season before the Christmas break on Friday at the Warman Home Centre Communiplex.
“We kind of have to forget about this weekend,” Antisin said. “It was not a good weekend for us. We’ve got to learn from it, move on, and focus on the future in Warman with the home and home there.”
michaeloleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
