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Mintos hammer the Kings to earn berth in Telus Regional final

Apr 2, 2011 | 2:16 PM

If their game one loss left a bad taste in their mouth, the Mintos can replace it with the sweet taste of victory in Sunday’s Telus Cup Western Regional final in Moose Jaw.

The Mintos earned a rematch against the Winnipeg Thrashers after a convincing, 8-3 win over the Thunder Bay Kings Saturday afternoon. The Thrashes beat the Mintos 3-1 in the tournament opener Thursday.

After scoring just three goals in their first two games, the Mintos offence came alive against the Kings.
Brennen Bosovich led the charge with five points including a hattrick. His line mates, Tad Kozun and Tyson Dallman had three points each, while Matt Anholt, Jordon Tkatch and Eric Bollefer rounded out the scoring.

Tyler Anton, Jeremy Yocom and Dylan Butler, who was named the games’ first star, netted goals for the Kings.

The Mintos opened the scoring 1:29 into the game when Tad Kozun made the Kings pay for taking an early penalty. Penalty trouble would be the down fall of the Kings in this game as P.A. converted on four of its nine power play opportunities.

“We knew they would come out hard and I expected to get some power play opportunities,” said Mintos head coach, Tim Leonard.

“Something we talked about and focused on was fine tuning our power play, just relaxing and getting the puck moving.”

“The kids did a good job early so we had them on their heels right off the get go,” he said.

The line of Bosovich, Kozun and Dallman combined for 11 points after being held in check through the first two games of the tournament.

“Everything was clicking,” said Bosovich

“We came out flying because we wanted to win. We want to play in the Telus Cup.”

“These guys have been checked pretty hard for about a month so it was nice to see them explode,” Leonard said.

The Mintos were in control for most of the game, however the Kings made a big push late in the second when Trevor Yocum’s goal made it 6-3. Mintos’ goaltender, Dawson MacAuley, was solid in his first start. He made 24 saves in the game, with the toughest ones coming in the last five minutes of the second.

Matt Anholt, who spent last game shadowing Moose Jaw's Kyle Oleniuk, got rewarded with a power play goal in the third period, which brought a smile to his coaches face.

“He had a tough gig (against Moose Jaw), but he passed with flying colors. (Today) he had more free reign getting involved in the fore check and he was on the back end of a great pass,” said Leonard.

The Thrashers tied Moose Jaw 2-2 in a meaningless game to close out the round robin. The Mintos and Thrashers clash Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Moose Jaw Civic Centre with the winner advancing to the Telus Cup in St John's Newfoundland.

900 CKBI will have live game updates from the rink, as well, you can find live scoring on paNOW.com.

bbosker@panow.com