By Jeff D'Andrea

Mintos Hockey

Mintos couldn’t replicate Tuesday’s magic as comeback falls short against Contacts

Nov 21, 2019 | 9:58 PM

It looked for a few minutes that the Prince Albert Mintos were going to comeback from a 3-1 deficit against a Saskatoon-based team ranked in the top two of the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League.

But alas, the Mintos ran out of time and gas in a 3-2 loss to the second-ranked Saskatoon Contacts Thursday at the Art Hauser Centre. On Tuesday, the Mintos snapped a three-game losing streak by coming back from behind down 3-1 to beat the top-ranked Saskatoon Blazers 4-3 in overtime.

The Mintos looked to be gaining some jump after Contacts forward Michael Flaman took a four-minute penalty for a slew foot. Mintos forward Chase Bertholet jammed home a power play goal with 11:29 remaining in the third period. But as the Mintos were pushing for the tying goal on the second half of that slew-foot penalty, they took a pair of infractions themselves including a four-minute head contact penalty to rookie Austin McLean.

“We got slowed again there in the third when we took that penalty in the third. We kinda had the momentum there… I didn’t actually see the penalty, so I don’t know the quality of it,” Mintos head coach Danton Danielson said. “But those are the things happen in games. You just have to battle through. That just cut our comeback time a little bit short. We’ll keep building on that. We’ll use that as a building game, and another brick in this wall that we’re trying to build this season.”

Heading into this week, the Mintos were on a three-game losing streak. Danielson referred to that as a “dark period” in the season. But with his team’s performances this week against the top two teams in the league thus far, Danielson thinks the dark days are behind them.

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“The effort level is there now and we’re competing at all times, for the most part. Guys have had their little spells here and there, but I thought tonight, we weren’t quite at the energy level-particularly in the third period in the last game,” Danielson said.”I thought though that our top guys did a pretty good job in maintaining that and leading the way, maybe some of our depth guys could had brought a little more to the table, I thought.

“But overall, we’re moving in the right direction in terms of the attitude we’re bringing to the rink, and we’re playing the way we want to play in terms of our tactics and structure.”

Both of the Mintos’ goal scorers were named ‘Chase’ on Thursday. Chase Pauls scored his fourth goal of the game, and Chase Bertholet had his sixth goal of the campaign. Oddly enough, the last four goals the Mintos have scored have been by a Chase, as captain Chase Friedt-Mohr had the Mintos’ last two on Tuesday.

Mintos goaltender Spencer Welke made 21 saves on 24 shots.

Matthew Hodson and Jacob Visentini had a goal and an assist for the Contacts. Brayden Yager, the 14-year-old from Dundurn, also scored for Saskatoon.

There were three Prince Albert Raiders prospects out on the ice. Signed prospect Adam McNutt, the assistant captain for the Contacts, munched a lot of ice time for the Contacts. The Mintos have two in their lineup in Tre Fouquette and forward Dallyn Peekeekoot.

The Mintos will close out their busy four-game week with a pair of games on the road, taking on the Regina Pat Canadians on Saturday and the Yorkton Maulers on Sunday.

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Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW