The Prince Albert Mintos (1-1-0) are ready to take home ice for the first time this season when they welcome the Notre Dame Hounds (0-2-0) to the Art Hauser Centre this weekend.
Minto head coach Doan Smith says the team is chomping at the bit to get on the ice this weekend.
“This is one of the best rinks in the league. These guys are super excited to play at home too. It’s good to have a weekend away prior to a weekend at home. Now that we’re home, we know what we got to work on. We know where our struggles were after weekend one and what we need to clean up before playing in front of our home crowd Saturday night.”
Prince Albert is coming off a weekend split in overtime against the Yorkton Maulers on the road, while Notre Dame is still looking for their first win of the campaign after being swept by the Saskatoon Contacts last weekend.
Smith says starting the season on the road was ideal for Prince Albert because it allowed the team to gel off of the ice.
“Anytime you can get away I think it’s good for the kids to get away, it’s good for staff and everybody to get away and see what you have that opening weekend and let the guys experience the road. You learn a lot and take it over into a home opener which everyone’s super excited for.”
Notre Dame features by far the youngest roster in the entire Saskatchewan Male AAA Hockey League (SMAAAHL). The Hounds only feature one returning player from a year ago in Koby Bossaer who has not appeared in a game yet this season.
Smith says Prince Albert will look to play to their strengths against an inexperienced opponent.
“We watched a video on Notre Dame over the week here and they played hard against the (Saskatoon) Contacts last weekend so we know that Notre Dame will come hard and they’re back to back weekends on the road so we got to take advantage of their travel schedule. If we play our game, I think we have a team where we can beat anybody in the league. We just have to worry about ourselves and play the game we know we can, stay disciplined and use our speed to our advantage.”
Prince Albert returns 10 players from last year’s team including forward Lincoln Rogers. Last season, Rogers recorded three goals and eight assists across 42 regular season games for the Mintos.
Rogers says the Mintos are ready to get going at the Art Hauser Centre
“I’m really excited to start off with the boys. It’s going to be a good game to win because we’re going to need to win a lot of games coming up.”
The Mintos and Hounds will square off at 7 p.m. on Saturday night at the Art Hauser Centre and will play a Sunday afternoon matinee at 1:30 p.m.
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