Mintos advance to Telus Cup finals; beat Rockets 6-3 in semis

The Mintos had a 2-0 lead after the first period thanks to goals from Yaremchuk and Teal Sobkowicz, before Rockets defenceman Kristian Blumenschein made it a 2-1 game with just five seconds left in the period.
Wyatt Grant scored on the power play to give the Mintos a 3-1 lead to set up a wacky third period.

Yaremchuk scored 47 seconds into the third on a bad angle, before the Rockets quickly made it a 4-3 game thanks to two quick power play goals from Tyson Jost and Tanner Campbell.

“Our power play has been important for us all year—on any given stretch it was sitting at about 40 per cent,” said Rockets head coach Mack O’Rourke, who’s power play is second at the Telus Cup at 21.6 per cent. “We were under a lot of pressure here and there were teams that kind of knew what we were doing.

“We didn’t get it going early, but I thought today the power play was effective. Obviously it would have been the contributing factor in the comeback had we got one to make it 4-4.”

In one of the craziest sequences in this tournament, Loch Morrison made it 5-3 which turned out to be a killer goal.

Yaremchuk hustled for a loose puck in front of the Rockets net and was checked into Rockets goaltender Brendan Barry as Morrison pounced on the loose puck and backhanded it in the net. A second before that, Mintos forward Jared Blaquiere was checked into the back of the net, which upset the net but did not take it off its moorings.

“I couldn’t have done it without my teammates there, it’s just luck,” said Morrison. “I just put it on net and hoped for the best and got the two goal lead there.”

Morrison has proven to be a huge asset for the Mintos. Despite being named the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League defenceman of the year, he finished second in the league in penalty minutes with 122, adding another 20 in the postseason.

But Morrison has just one minor penalty in six Telus Cup games, while being able to add two goals and two assists.

“My coach has been stressing on me a lot and I’ve learned that chirping and playing rough with cheap shots and stuff, they’re will go against me,” said Morrison. “(Referee Adam) Bloski and all those other guys have been really nice to me saying ‘good job out there’ and ‘smart’ so that’s good.”

Long road to Telus Cup finals

March 15th is now a distant memory for the Mintos. That was the date they were swept in the second round of the SMAAAHL playoffs by the Battlefords Stars. Since then, the Mintos have gone 7-1-2 combined in the Western Regionals (3-1) and are undefeated at the Telus Cup (4-0-2).

Mintos head coach Ken Morrison said that his team finally getting healthy has been a big factor. The Mintos were desperately shorthanded in the playoffs, having only three forward lines and in some cases, just four defencemen at their disposal.

Now that everybody’s in the lineup and the Mintos can roll four lines and six-D, that has paid dividends, according to Ken.

Michasiw wins big in Telus Cup awards/ Ingram to start finals

At the tournament’s Saturday night banquet, Mintos goaltender Lane Michasiw picked up several important tournament awards.

He was named as the TELUS Most Valuable Player thanks to his sparkling goaltending for the Mintos in the round robin.

Michasiw also split the Top Goaltender Award with Mintos goaltender Connor Ingram.

Michasiw gave up just one goal in three games, 0.33 goals against average and an outstanding .988 save percentage.

Although Michasiw was the tournament MVP, Ken Morrison said the Mintos will start Connor Ingram in the finals. Ingram was the best goaltender at the Western Regional championships and was instrumental in getting the Mintos to the Telus Cup.

Ingram stopped 30 of 33 on Saturday and has a .948 save percentage and 1.47 goals against average for the tournament.

Here is the complete list of award winners.

TELUS Most Valuable Player – Lane Michasiw (Prince Albert Mintos)

Top Goaltender – Connor Ingram & Lane Michasiw (Prince Albert Mintos)

Top Forward – Tanner Wishnowski (Okanagan Rockets)

Top Defensive Player – Dawson Davidson (Moose Jaw Generals)

Most Sportsmanlike Player – Liam Finlay (Okanagan Rockets)

Top Scorer – Tanner Wishnowski (Okanagan Rockets)

Esso Scholarship – Oliver Jacobs (Toronto Young Nationals)

jdandrea@panow.com

On Twitter: @jeff_dandrea

by Jeff D'Andrea

Mintos advance to Telus Cup finals; beat Rockets 6-3 in semis

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