Mintos beat Pat C’s in a shootout with big performance from Tiringer

“I threw him out there and the kid got it done. The winner in the shootout, that’s a goal scorer’s shot.”

After Tiringer’s shot, Mintos goaltender Derrick Hucul stopped Carson Denomie on the blocker side to cap off a thrilling win. Hucul made 25 saves and was 4-5 in the shootout and registered his fifth win on the year.

The back-and-forth battle featured two teams around the top of the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League table. The win gives the Mintos a 6-2 record on the season and the third best winning percentage at .750. Two of their wins have come against the Pat Canadians, after the Mintos beat them on the road 3-2 on Oct. 10. The Pat Canadians are now 6-3-0-1.

“I thought it was a very good game today—both teams played well,” said Mintos head coach Tim Leonard. “Regina’s got a nice club, I like their club but in saying that, we had a pretty good go too.

“It just shows that we can play against the best. Home ice helped us here tonight, a little more energy there in the third.”

The Mintos got into serious penalty trouble in the first period, taking six minor penalties. They only managed seven shots on goal in the opening frame.

The Pat Canadians got the lone goal of the first period on the power play, courtesy of a Ty Barnstable wrist shot from the top of the circle.

The penalties eventually evened themselves out at six for each team by the end of the game, but Leonard wasn’t all two pleased in the opening frame.

“There wasn’t much I told the guys, I just talked to the ref—‘come on, let us play,’” said Leonard. “There’s one or two there, but six of them? Come on.

“We talked about it [with the team], but we don’t want to change the way we play or let off when we got something going. In the second and the third, I thought the refs adjusted.”

The Mintos equalized early in the second period, as Keegan Tiringer crashed the net and tucked it in after receiving a nice pass from Connor Pyne in front.

Pat C’s rookie Carson Focht, the seventh overall pick of the 2015 WHL Bantam Draft by the Tri-City Americans, put the Pat C’s up 2-1 heading into the third.

Defenceman Jake Hobson tied the game up in the third period for the Mintos, forcing the game to overtime and was named the Mintos’ player of the game when it ended.

Hobson now has four goals and five points in his last three games. He is starting to heat up after being a late reassignment by the Portland Winterhawks, who drafted Hobson in the third round of the 2014 WHL Bantam Draft.

But according to Leonard, Hobson did have a slow start to the year before catching fire recently.

“I’ll call it the Western Hockey League hangover when he first came back, it’s just a natural thing that they think it’s going to be easy when they come back. These guys that he’s playing against, they don’t know he’s drafted by Portland and he was a late cut—they could care less,” said Leonard. “They go out and work him and he has to up his tempo.

“We had a pretty good chat [Saturday] after the first period and I said ‘I’m not being a very good coach if I don’t push you. Right now, you’re not playing as well as you need to play.’ Yesterday’s last 40 and today’s 60, I thought he was up where he needs to be.”

The Mintos will be in Beardy’s on Thursday to take on the Blackhawks for their next match-up at the Willow Cree Memorial Sport Centre.

jdandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_dandrea

by Jeff D'Andrea

Mintos beat Pat C’s in a shootout with big performance from Tiringer

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