By Jeff D'Andrea

Mintos couldn’t miss in 6-1 win over Stars

Feb 12, 2015 | 8:48 PM

On Thursday, everything the Prince Albert Mintos touched turned into gold.

The Mintos scored on their first four shots of the game to defeat the fourth place Battlefords Stars 6-1 at the Art Hauser Centre. It was the Mintos’ third consecutive win, having beat the third seeded Notre Dame Hounds 2-1 on Sunday and the first place Regina Pat Canadians 2-1 in a shootout on Saturday.

Mintos captain Brody Reimer opened the scoring 1:54 into the game on the power play and 36 seconds later, Chris Van Os-Shaw wired a slap shot from distance to put the Mintos up 2-0. That chased Stars goaltender Brett Pongracz from the game, who didn’t stop either of his first two shots.

Talen King came into the game, but didn’t fare much better in the Stars net as he gave up goals on his next two shots. Van Os-Shaw picked up his second and Mintos speedster Josh Roberts scored on a breakaway.

In fact, it took the Stars goaltenders approximately 16 minutes to finally record a save. Of all the years Mintos coach Tim Leonard has been a part of hockey, he’s never been a part of a start like that.

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“That’s something new to me—usually it’s the other way,” said Leonard. “You know what, good things happen when you put pucks on net.

“I know Chris’ goal was from outside the blueline, but kid’s got a ‘howie’ on him. He just let’er buck and it seemed to rise on (Pongracz) and caught him off guard. Hats off to (Van Os-Shaw) for trusting his shot.”

The Stars’ nightmare of a period got even worse, Stars defenceman Tyler Baier was struck with a slashing major penalty after he wildly hacked Keegan Tiringer from behind, as Tiringer was on a clear breakaway chance.

Nobody scored until the third period when Kaleb Dahlgren finally got the Stars on the board, but the Mintos answered quickly with two more as Van Os-Shaw completed his hat trick and Chase Tippett made it 6-1.

For Van Os-Shaw, that’s his second hat trick of the season—third if you count exhibition games. The 17-year-old rookie from Regina now has 15 goals on the year and 31 points for the Mintos (in 38 games)—ranking fourth on the Mintos in both categories.

“I feel like I’m more of a shooter and a goal scorer, I just try to do my part the best that I can,” said Van Os-Shaw. “I just thinking of getting the puck to the net and hope for the best, get as many shots off as I could.”

Mintos goaltender Taylor Unruh had a sharp game, making 40 saves on 41 shots. He saved his best stop for late in the game, flashing some serious glove on Stars sniper Layne Young.

Three different Mintos had three-point nights. Alog with Van Os-Shaw’s hat trick, captain Brody Reimer had a goal and three assists, as did Chase Tippett. Riley Sawchuk had a pair of assists.

The Mintos got their revenge after the Stars beat the Mintos 7-2 on Feb. 5 in the Battlefords.

The Mintos will host the Notre Dame Hounds on Saturday and the Notre Dame Argos on Sunday, both games will be played at 1:30 p.m. at the Art Hauser Centre.

After a Feb. 17 matchup in Saskatoon against the Contacts, the Mintos will wrap up the regular season on Feb. 21 at the Art Hauser Centre against the Moose Jaw Generals.

jdandrea@panow.com

On Twitter: @jeff_dandrea