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Mintos’ backs against the wall as Hounds take 2-0 finals lead

Mar 24, 2018 | 9:40 PM

After their 3-2 defeat Saturday at the Art Hauser Centre, the Prince Albert Mintos have their backs against the wall against a team that’s lost just six times in 52 total games this season—the Notre Dame Hounds.

The Hounds have a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series to crown the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League championship. The Mintos will have to win the remaining three games on the schedule to come back and steal the series away, starting on Game 3 Wednesday in Notre Dame.

“I like our guys’ attitude, they’ve been determined all year. They’ll bounce back and give it their best effort,” Mintos head coach Ken Morrison said. “Those guys are a good team, you watch them and you can tell they’re good. It’s a big task at hand, but it can be done.”

Although Morrison was more than happy with the effort, he feels all three goals against could have been prevented.

“I thought we gave them three goals on three mistakes,” Morrison said. “The first one, we just got out-battled on the faceoff—I didn’t think our first 10 minutes was very good. We turned one over on the second one and the third one, we had a chance to get it out of our end and turned it over there. It’s the difference in the game.”

Josselin Dufey scored the winner for the Hounds with just 2:21 left in the game on the power play. Ethan Ernst and Brad Morrissey had the other two goals for the Hounds. Josh Pillar and Jaxon Tait both scored for the Mintos.

 

Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW