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Mintos rookies shine in 6-0 win over Hounds and 6-1 start to season

Oct 16, 2011 | 6:04 PM

The Prince Albert Mintos have had excellent production from their rookies, not limited to the big five they called up from the bantam provincial champion Venice House Pirates.

Mintos first-year forward Brett Njaa extended his impressive point streak to six games with a goal and an assist in a 6-0 win against the Notre Dame Hounds Sunday at the Art Hauser Centre.

With the two points, Njaa is now tied for fifth in league scoring with 12 points, all of which he’s scored in his last six games.

“I didn’t really think it would come this fast,” said Njaa, a 17-year-old product of Birch Hills. “It’s nice to get, nice to start good but just gotta keep it going now.
“I think our off-ice training is helping a lot and I did a lot of work in the summer on my skating, because my skating was weak but it’s helped out a lot. I’ve been able to keep up better.”

Although he admitted he was a tad nervous in the first two games, Njaa showed he could play at the Midget AAA level last year by playing in seven games for the Mintos last year as an affiliate, including four playoff appearances. Mintos assistant coach Dave Manson said that has helped Njaa’s transition this year.

“Njaasie played a number of games last year with us as an AP so he feels pretty comfortable and he knows what’s expected of him this year from Tim (Leonard, Mintos head coach) and myself,” said Manson. “He’s played a number of games in the league this year and it shows, that’s a big advantage for him this year.

“Njaasie’s played well for us. He’s a big kid that skates well and he uses that speed to his advantage. He reads the game really well and works his way around the ice pretty well and that’s evident with his point production right now.”

The Mintos are the only team to have a goals against average below 2.00 at 1.63 and are lead by two rookie goaltenders in Tyrell King and Tanner Burgardt.

King (4-1) has been especially effective with a 94.17 save percentage and a miniscule 1.40 GAA, both of which are good for second in the league behind Beardy’s Blackhawks goaltender Regan Santoro (1.33 GAA, .950 save percentage).

He had a 19 save shutout on Sunday for his first clean sheet of the season and said the team’s defence-first play has really helped make his job easier.

“It’s been a team thing, everybody’s just playing good,” said King. “We lost our first two, but we’re playing good, we’re playing awesome.”

Although King faced only 19 shots in the game, including only three in the third period, he made some terrific saves, including two breakaways within a minute of each other in the second period, keeping a 3-0 lead.

“I was surprised when we turned it over there but mental preparation before the game (helped) to stay in the game through the whole thing,” said King.

“He’s been pretty steady for us and he made a number of key saves tonight that kept the three goal lead for us early when we were taking penalties and weren’t able to capitalize on the power play,” said Manson. “He was a big key to the win today, he stood tall when the game got tight.”

After Njaa opened the scoring midway through the first, defenceman Michael Statchuk scored on the powerplay at the 16-minute mark and now has eight points in as many games.

Adam Osczevski scored the lone second period goal and Regan Wilton, Jason Duret and Dillon Frater all potted goals for the Mintos in the third.

Hounds goaltender Eric Williams faced 49 Mintos shots, making 43 saves.

The Mintos will face the Blackhawks (6-1) on Thursday for their next game at the Willow Cree Memorial Sport Centre. The game starts at 7:30 p.m.

jdandrea@panow.com