By Jeff D'Andrea

Mintos quieted by Blazers ; Leonard suspended for month

Dec 8, 2015 | 9:00 PM

The Prince Albert Mintos left their best game back on the team’s bus.

In their first game at home since Nov. 28, the Mintos gave up four unanswered goals to the Saskatoon Blazers in a 4-1 loss Tuesday at the Art Hauser Centre.

Although defensively sound, the Blazers are the only team in the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League to not average more than two goals scored per game. Even after their four-goal output, they’re still below the Mendoza line with a 1.91 goals per game average.

Even so, the Blazers were the better of the two sides. Mintos assistant coach Todd Becker tipped his cap to the Blazers in post-game interviews.

“We weren’t good tonight. We got beat to loose pucks, plain and simple. Their will to win was more than ours,” said Mintos assistant coach Todd Becker. “If we coulda came out and played like we did the last eight or nine minutes in the third, when we decided we wanted to win a hockey game, we probably would have been alright.”

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With the loss, the Mintos have a 15-6-0-2 record and sit in fourth place. The standings are so bunched together that a win could mean the difference of a jump of several rankings.

“The standings are so tight all the way through,” said Becker.  “Even the lower half of the league is beating some of the teams above them. You can never take a night off. This is probably the most consistent the league has been in the five years I’ve been with the Mintos.

“Like we tell the boys, oppositions that we play, they put their best effort in front of us and we have to be prepared for that. Tonight, we weren’t.”

Timmy’s closed for a month

Mintos head coach Tim Leonard did not coach Tuesday’s game as he’s been suspended by the league for a month, according to Mintos manager Don Fauchoux.

Fauchoux said Leonard did not sit Mintos rookie forward Kyle Schneider after he receiving a fighting major and an automatic game misconduct on Dec. 1 in a 3-2 shootout loss to the Battlefords Stars on the road. Leonard’s first game he’ll be eligible to coach is Jan. 6 against the Tisdale Trojans on the road.

This isn’t the first time Leonard has received a lengthy ban from the league. In 2011, he missed the first month of the season after it was deemed the Mintos used two ineligible players, Cody Young and Zach Harms, who were not officially released from the Saskatoon Minor Hockey jurisdiction.

Scoring summary

Mintos defenceman Jake Hobson opened the scoring for the home side, scoring on a point blast with traffic in front. Blazers captain Landon Markovich, who’s from Prince Albert, tied the game on the power play with a point shot of his own.

Markovich doesn’t always score goals, but when he does, they’re probably in the Art Hauser Centre. Two of his four goals this season have come in his hometown building, the last being the Blazers’ only goal Oct. 1 in a 3-1 loss to the Mintos.

The Blazers got two more in the second period, Noah Bankowski from a sharp angle and Kaden Boser on a 2-on-1 break for his first Midget AAA career goal. As a result, the Blazers had a 3-1 lead heading into the third period.

Hudson added his second of the game, shelfing an empty netter to make it 4-1.

The Mintos will play the Saskatoon Contacts Thursday at the Art Hauser Centre for their next contest. The Contacts are hosting the Telus Cup Western Regionals March 31 to April 3.

jdandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_dandrea