By Jeff D'Andrea

Mintos raise Telus Cup banner before 5-3 win over Blazers

Sep 27, 2014 | 3:53 PM

In their first game after their historic Telus Cup victory, the Prince Albert Mintos started their year off with a 5-3 win over the Saskatoon Blazers Saturday at the Art Hauser Centre.

It was Tim Leonard’s first game as the Mintos’ head coach since he left the team after the 2011-2012 season to join the Prince Albert Raiders. Leonard resigned from the Raiders on Wednesday and joined the Mintos later that day. 

Game Summary

Gage Ramsay opened the scoring 3:41 into the hockey game, picking up a rebound in front of the Raiders net. Midway through the first period, Ramsay was given a game misconduct for a checking from behind penalty on Mintos forward Josh Roberts and was ejected from the game.

That gave the Mintos some momentum. They got two straight goals from home grown talent that transferred over from the Beardy’s Blackhawks last season, Adam Hergott and Reed Gunville.

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Hergott, the 17-year-old defenceman, scored the Mintos’ first goal of the year and tied the game with just over two minutes left in the first period. Then P.A. product Reed Gunville gave the Mintos the lead six minutes into the second.

Blazers forward Reese Johnson tied the game on the power play at the 11 minute mark, but Mintos forward Brett Harasymuk scored just 17 seconds later to restore the Mintos lead.

Both teams traded goals again before the period was over as Jake Leschyshyn scored for the Blazers and Brody Madarash scored to give the Mintos a 4-3 lead heading into the third.

Zac Paziuk added an empty net insurance marker to extend the score to 5-3 with 49.4 seconds left.
Mintos goaltender Derrick Hucul made 23 saves on 26 shots in his game as a Minto. Blazers goaltender Austin Swystun was much busier, stopping 35 of 40 shots.

They are the champions, my friend

The Mintos celebrated their 2014 Telus Cup championship by raising the banner into the Art Hauser Centre rafters. The five remaining players from that squad were involved in the banner raising and were defencemen
Matthew Parsons and Brody Reimer, and forwards Kody White, Josh Roberts and Brody Madarash.

The Mintos beat les Grenadiers de Châteauguay 4-3 in triple overtime in the longest game ever at the Telus Cup.

They also surrendered a record three goals in five round robin games, and have a record undefeated streak of 19-0-2 at the Telus Cup.

Looking ahead

The Mintos are on the road next weekend to visit the Regina Pat Canadians on Saturday at the Moose Jaw Generals on Sunday. They’ll return on Oct. 9 to host the Saskatoon Contacts.

jdandrea@panow.com

On Twitter: @jeff_dandrea