Raiders prospect Nolan Allan celebrates his third period goal with the Blazers Sunday in a 5-2 win over the Mintos. Jeff D'Andrea/paNOW Staff

By Jeff D'Andrea

Canada Winter Games to Midget AAA

Team Sask teammates turn back to Midget AAA opponents

Feb 24, 2019 | 5:06 PM

A pile of players from both teams logged a ton of highway hours to get to the Art Hauser Centre by Sunday afternoon, as the Saskatoon Blazers defeated the Prince Albert Mintos 5-2.

Gabe Klassen, Ashton Ferster, Marek Schneider and Logan Cox all arrived back in Prince Albert on Saturday after representing their province at the 2019 Canada Winter Games in Red Deer from Feb. 13 to Feb. 22. Blazers’ defenceman and Raiders’ prospect Nolan Allan was in Red Deer representing his province.

Team Sask did well enough to get to the bronze medal game, but lost 12-0 to Team Alberta to finish in fourth place.

But Klassen said the overall experience was a good one and the team grew quite bit after introducing themselves to each other two days before the tournament started Feb. 15.

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“We stood up an introduced ourselves, and then we came a long ways after that. We performed really well, turned a lot of heads,” Klassen said. “It was a good tournament all the way through. We stumbled in the last game. I thought our effort was there, it just didn’t go our way.”

All four Mintos that attended were from Prince Albert and all played their bantam hockey together.

For Klassen, it was nice having three very familiar faces along with him at such a big tournament.

“It was awesome. I’ve played with Ashton for like four years now. To play with him at that stage, it was something really cool,” said Klassen, who’s a first round draft choice of the Portland Winterhawks. “Schneids and Coxy as well, it was awesome to play with them.”

Blazers defenceman Nolan Allan was in the same boat, as he also represented Team Saskatchewan. The Prince Albert Raiders first rounder said it was quite the change for having the four P.A. boys as teammates for a week and a half, and then quickly play against them.

“It was a bit different,” Allan said, who has 12 goals and 35 points in 38 games in his first Midget AAA season. “You say ‘hi’ and ‘see you around,’ but we had a good battle out there.”

Allan was a standout for Team Saskatchewan. He finished the tournament with four goals and seven points despite being a blueliner and said he was able to get a pile of his points on the team’s well-designed power play.

“It was a great experience,” Allan said. “I like seeing some of the eastern teams, I hadn’t played against them much. Played against some of the Alberta teams, but it was great to see the best players in Canada.

“It was a lot harder. It was faster. Everybody’s going balls out—it’s the Canada Winter Games.”

Allan had a goal in the Blazers’ 5-2 win, as did fellow Raider prospect Cole Nagy. Klassen scored both of the Mintos’ goals.

Klassen will finish the year with 31 goals in 42 games, which is second in the league.

Regardless of what happened on Sunday, the Mintos were always going to finish in sixth place. The Mintos finish the year with a 23-19-0-2 record and will face the Blazers in the first round. The series will start on Sunday in Saskatoon, with the Mintos’ home leg coming on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Art Hauser Centre.

“We’re going to be matched up against these guys it looks like. It was good to get a taste and see what they’re all about,” Klassen said. “Not the start we wanted, I guess. They got the early goal, but I thought we bounced back pretty well. With us just coming back without a practice, I thought we did not bad under the circumstances. I’m looking forward to the playoffs.

Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW