On a night where there were many momentum swings, the Prince Albert Mintos saw their recent run of success come to an end.
In a battle for second place in the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League standings at the Art Hauser Centre Wednesday, the Tisdale Trojans came away with a 4-2 victory that brought an end to the Mintos six-game win streak.
“It was a weird game,” Mintos head coach Ken Morrison said. “We did well to come back in the third period to tie the game up at two and we started to get the momentum back in our favour.
“We had one bad shift where they took the lead back right after we had tied it, but I felt we were still doing okay. Then we took a bad penalty and that basically ended our chances.”
That penalty occurred with 2:49 left in the third period as Mintos forward Gavin Ingram received a five minute major penalty for head contact and a game misconduct after a heavy hit along the boards on Trojans forward and Kamloops Blazers prospect Kalen Ukrainetz.
“Due to that major penalty, we didn’t have a chance to get our goalie (Carter Woodside) out of the net and we weren’t able to push as hard as we would have liked for the tying goal,” Morrison said.
“We had a couple of bad penalties tonight that will probably result in suspensions and that doesn’t help us out at all.”
The Mintos also lost the services of forward Chase Bertholet in the second period of play as the Red Deer Rebels prospect received a game misconduct after a hit from behind on Trojans blueliner Drayton Huidston.
Wednesday’s win for the 9-2-1-1 Trojans was the third straight for this year’s Telus Cup West Regional hosts, as they now sit five points back of the 12-2-1-0 Saskatoon Blazers for first place in the standings.
“The biggest thing for us tonight was to make sure that we survived the first 10 minutes, which is basically what we did,” Trojans head coach Darrell Mann said.
“Prince Albert came out strong but (goaltender) Tanner Martin made some huge saves to keep us in the game. We fortunate to get a goal soon afterwards from Isaiah Casavant and we just built off of that.”
Signed Moose Jaw Warriors prospect Cade Hayes led the way on offence with a pair of assists, while Blake Samida, Liam Rutten and Trenton Curtis also scored.
Martin, who has the best goals against average in the league at the moment with a 1.44 mark, was stellar in net as he made 31 saves.
Kelowna Rockets draft pick Turner McMillen and Dawson Springer both scored for the Mintos, who received a pair of assists from Prince Albert Raiders prospect Cohner Saleski.
Woodside, a prospect of the Regina Pats, turned aside 26 shots for the hosts, who are third in the standings with a 9-4 mark.
This was the second meeting between the Mintos and the Trojans this season, as the Trojans picked up a 6-2 win in Tisdale on Oct. 5 in what was the last setback for the Mintos until Wednesday night.
“I thought both games were kind of similar,” Mann said. “I thought we carried the play more in our first meeting compared to tonight, but Prince Albert gave us a really good challenge here and we were fortunate to get the win.”
“I think we beat ourselves in both games with mistakes and bad penalties,” Morrison said. “If we can turn that around and fix those things, I think the outcome will be different when we play them again in December.”
The Mintos will wrap up a three-game homestand Saturday at 7 p.m. when the Regina Pat Canadians come to the Art Hauser Centre.
The Pat Canadians, who sit in fifth place in the league table with a 6-2-2-1 mark, feature the top scorer in the league in 15-year-old Cole Sillinger.
Sillinger, the son of former NHL forward Mike and a first round pick by the Medicine Hat Tigers in the 2018 WHL Bantam Draft, has 22 points in 11 games in his first year in midget.
