By Jeff D'Andrea

Mintos slash and trip away 4-1 lead in loss to Maulers

Jan 18, 2015 | 3:33 PM

The Prince Albert Mintos shot themselves in the foot until they ran out of bullets in Sunday’s 6-4 loss to the Yorkton RawTec Maulers.

The Mintos had a 4-1 lead over the Maulers with over 4 minutes left in the second period, but decided they wanted to show how tough they were instead of build on their lead. The Mintos took 40 minutes of penalties in the game, with 10 different players registering at least a minor penalty, and gave the Maulers 12 different power play opportunities. The Maulers scored five of their six goals on the power play, the other was their empty netter at the end of the game.

The Mintos’ penalty box door became a revolving one moments after they were up 4-1. Just in the final four minutes of the second period, the Mintos took a pair of four-minute infractions for head contact, as well as two minor penalties to go on super extended 5-on-3 penalty kills. As a result, Maulers forward Logan Casavant scored a natural hat trick, all on the power play, to erase the 4-1 deficit and tie the game early in the third.

Koal Roberts gave the Maulers the go-ahead 5-4 goal with 3:02 left in the game, again on the power play.

McKenzie Welke scored an empty net goal in the final minute to do the Mintos in.

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“There’s a saying, ‘you use your emotions to think, not thinking with your emotions in the heat of the moment.’ We had a couple of guys that put their selfishness ahead of the rest of the team and it cost us the game,” said Mintos coach Todd Becker. “We’re not going to win many games sitting in the penalty box for that many minutes.

“(The Maulers) had five power play goals, then an empty net (goal). It’s not very good on our part. We were working hard and we had some guys that were contributing very good, but we had some spoilers in our lineup that screwed things up.”

Before sending a small army to the penalty box, the  Mintos were actually playing one of their better games of the season against the Maulers.

Kody White opened the scoring with a shorthanded goal in the first period, Eric Gardiner scored a pretty goal after an excellent feed from Riley Sawchuk. Early in the second, Drake Teer scored after both of his linemates, Keegan Tiringer and Brody Madarash, delivered crushing blows on the forecheck to keep the play alive. Matthew Parsons then scored his second career goal, all while Derrick Hucul was sharp in the Mintos goal.

“It’s just that we seem we want to kick ourselves and go backwards with it for our own doing,” said Becker. “That’s the most frustrating part.”

The Mintos lost 4-3 in a shootout on Saturday to the Battlefords Stars, a game they erased a 2-0 deficit in the third period. 

The Mintos will play their next seven games on the road, not returning back to the Art Hauser Centre until Feb. 12 to face the Battlefords Stars.

jdandrea@panow.com

On Twitter: @jeff_dandrea