Mintos stay-at-home D-man steals spotlight in 2-1 win over Trojans

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“It feels awesome, finally gettin’er off my back,” said the 16-year-old rookie. “Just hopin’ there’s more to come.

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“Just pumped up, fired up, we finally got the lead in the game.”

That was Arndt’s fourth point in 12 games for the Mintos. Mintos head coach Tim Leonard has been impressed with how Arndt has found his way in the Midget AAA hockey league, after playing his 15-year-old season in Midget AA with the Weyburn Wings.

“Wyatt is finding his way here now, he just seems to be getting better and better every game,” said Tim Leonard. “From his work ethic in practice is carrying over to games. We’re not surprised, he was like that in camp but at the start of the season, it was taking him a while to get rolling.

“These kids are leaving home and getting used to a lot of different things. He’s looking more comfortable every game.”

The Mintos’ win snapped a seven-game winning streak for the Trojans, who hadn’t lost a game of any kind since Oct. 5 and their first regulation loss since Sept. 30.

“These guys, they’re one of the better teams in the league for sure, and it feels good to take them down,” said Arndt. “We have an awesome team in there, I think we can do very, very good this year.”

It was a goalie duel as both goaltenders had to be sharp. Trojans goaltender Kye Steinke made 34 saves in a losing effort. Derrick Hucul was sharp in goal for the Mintos, making 28 saves on 29 shots for his side. As good as Hucul was, he was a little fortunate as well. As time was ticking down, the puck came out front to Trojans forward Logan Foster, who would have had a wide open goal had the puck not jumped over his stick.

“There’s no secret to winning, you have to have a pretty good goalie,” said Leonard. “He’d probably want the first one back, but he was pretty solid in there tonight. In the end, they had their little chance at the net and it was the hockey gods were kind of with us there, unlike last time.”

“Last time,” was on Oct. 15, when the Mintos had a 2-1 lead over the Trojans, who were able to score twice within a 55-second span off the sticks of Erik Ehrmantraut and Josh McDougall, who hails from Prince Albert.

“We just talked about sticking to our systems, that’s what happened last time, we had a couple breakdowns and it cost us. We made sure our F3 [third forward] was nice and high and we put a wedge in when they wanted to break it out. We did a really good job of that in the third period.

Maguire Blair had a goal and an assist for the Mintos in the victory. Kristopher Bzdel had the lone goal for the Trojans.

The Mintos will play their next three games on the road, Nov. 12 against the Saskatoon Blazers and a two-game set against the Swift Current Legionnaires Nov. 14-15.  Their next home game will be on Nov. 19 against the Saskatoon Contacts.

jdandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_dandrea