Mintos’ Sawchuk has Telus Cup in his sights; Mintos 6 Hounds 4

“I think I’m very confident. We have a good group of guys in there and we’re all starting to buy in good,” said Sawchuk, who scored the Mintos’ sixth goal after a pretty give-and-go with Erik Gardiner. “I think it will be a good season.”

That belief only got stronger after Jake Hobson and Erik Gardiner returned from their respective WHL teams to help the Mintos as 16-year-olds.

“We got a lot more confident, they’re a big help to our team,” said Sawchuk. “We had a good group of D-men but adding Hobson is awesome. Gardiner is a big help [up front] too.”

Mintos 6 Hounds 4

The Mintos had five different leads before finally closing the door late on the Hounds.

After Mintos rookie forward Brandt Bertoia scored the first goal of the year midway through the first period, Hounds’ Lucas Fraulin evened the score 50 seconds later.

When Matthew Georget gave the Mintos a 2-1 lead late in the first, Adam Dawe responded for the Hounds 49 seconds later to end the first period at 2-2.

Braden Isbister gave the Mintos a 3-2 lead midway through the second, but Thomas Casey scored 1:36 afterwards to once again even the score.

Connor Pyne gave the Mintos a 4-3 lead with 8:55 left the second period.

Fraulin scored his second of the game early in the third to make it a 4-4 but Mintos rookie Taylor Kreutzer scored the game winner three minutes afterwards. Riley Sawchuk shut the door making it 6-4 late for the Mintos.

“It’s not the way you want to play it out, but [the Hounds] are a good hockey team. That’s why we like playing them early, because they’re a measuring stick,” said Mintos head coach Tim Leonard. “They’re good every year and it showed, they’re going to be there when push comes to shove.

“There’s some good learning things there, yeah we got ahead and let them tie it up, sometimes you can fold the tent. It’s easy to bail out but our guys responded quite well.”

Bertoia, Georget, Isbister, Pyne and Kreutzer all scored their first career Midget AAA goals in the game for the Mintos. Bertoia, Kreutzer and Isbister all also added assists.

Leonard is especially high on Bertoia, who was named the Mintos’ player of the game.

“Bertoia, at the end of the season I went and watched him play in Beardy’s in AA. I watched him for about 10 minutes and I said, ‘I want that guy. We’re going to do whatever we had to [to get him],’” said Leonard. “I had to reach out to an ex-player Ashton Hewson who’s a cousin and go about it that way. We’re sure glad he bought in.

“We kinda compare him to the old steel trackers that rumble along, roll along and move all over. He’s going to be a dandy, people are going to enjoy watching him.”

Rough stuff

In the game, there were four checking-from-behind (CFB) that result in automatic game misconducts—two for each team.

Carson McManaman and Cole Kirkup were the Hounds’ culprits, while Matthew Georget and Keegan Tiringer were the guilty parties for the Mintos.

Since Georget and Tiringer’s CFB’s came under 10 minutes left in the game, they will be automatically suspended for one game, Thursday’s home matchup against the Saskatoon Blazers.

jdandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_dandrea

by Jeff D'Andrea

Mintos’ Sawchuk has Telus Cup in his sights; Mintos 6 Hounds 4

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