By Brent Bosker

Mintos recover from slow start to beat Contacts

Mar 15, 2011 | 9:12 PM

The Prince Albert Mintos erased a 2-0 deficit to beat the Saskatoon Contacts 6-3 to take a one nothing lead in the best-of-five Saskatchewan Midget Triple AAA Hockey League championship series.

Taylor Leier and Taylor Reich stunned the Art Hauser Centre crowd of over 1000 with goals 27 seconds apart in the opening 1:07 of the period.

“I think we were ready to go it was just a matter of a couple of missed assignments,” said Mintos’ head coach Tim Leonard.

The team showed character, said Leonard.

“Most teams might have quit, lost their mind or come unglued. I just told them there is a 59 minutes to get back into this game.”

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Brennen Bosovich got the Mintos back on track with a great individual effort on the power play. He sliced through three Saskatoon defenders and snapped a wrist shot past Mack Shields for his sixth of the post season.

Bosovich was a spark plug, Leonard said.

“You could just see he was determined to try and get us back into the game.”

The Mintos tied the game midway through the period. Jordon Tkatch forced a turnover inside the Contacts blue line and he whistled a wrist shot blocker side on Shields.

Prince Albert took control of the game from that point and picked up the intensity in the second, a period in which they dominated the Contacts.

Tad Kozan gave the Mintos their first lead of the game at 4:03 of the second period. He was left alone in front of the net and buried a loose puck from between the hash marks for his playoff leading ninth goal.

Jason Durent and Adam Fauchaux added two more to give P.A. a 5-2 lead after two.

In the third, the Contacts narrowed the Mintos lead on a goal by call up Colton Olynuk. However the Contacts would get no closer. Tyson Dallman secured the win scoring with 2:05 remaining.

Taran Kozun made 21 saves for the win in goal. Mack Shields stopped 26 shots in a losing cause for the Contacts.

It’s a huge to get that first win, said Leonard. “We fought all year for home ice and that was one of our goals at the start of the season. I know how important (home ice) is and it was key that we got it.”

The series now shifts to Saskatoon for game two Thursday night.

Leonard said the team will have an easy skate Wednesday and work on the power play in preparation for game two.

You can follow the Mintos on paNOW.com and on 900 CKBI with live updates during each game of the series.

bbosker@rawlco.com