If it wasn’t for a disastrous opening to the night for the Battlefords AAA Stars, the outcome of their game with the Prince Albert Mintos might have been different.
Despite a strong effort in the final 40 minutes, a 3-0 deficit after a little over five minutes of play was too much to overcome for the Stars as they dropped a 5-2 decision to the Prince Albert Mintos in Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League play at the Civic Centre Tuesday night.
“I don’t know if we were intimated from the last time we played them (a 6-1 loss in Prince Albert on Nov. 24) or what it was, but the first 10 minutes was kind of a mess for us,” Stars head coach Jean Fauchon said.
“We were able to refocus after that and we hung right with them for the final 50 minutes. We kept battling until the end, and we got within a goal, but they were able to get two goals late to pull away.”
The Mintos took control of the contest by scoring three goals in a 2:51 span in the opening frame.
After a bad turnover led to a goal by Kyrell Sopotyk, Kade McMillen fired home a power play goal from the point and Jacob Leicht slid a shot by Stars goaltender Lance Alm to give the visitors a comfortable cushion.
“In the past, we’ve had fast starts where we’ve been good for the first five or 10 minutes and then things went downhill,” Fauchon said.
“Tonight, was the exact opposite of that. We’ll talk to the team about that and will look to maintain our usual quick start over the course of a full 60 minutes as we move forward.”
Ian Hillis brought some life to the Stars during the second period, as he teamed up with linemate Adam Beckman on a pair of goals to cut the Mintos’ lead down to one.
“Our line (which also includes Mackenzie Donovan) has been doing a lot of work lately on breakout drills so I think that helped a lot,” Hillis said. “I’ve also been working a lot on trying to get as many shots on net as possible, because you never know what can happen.”
“Ian’s been playing very well lately,” Fauchon said. “He’s got a real nose for the net and a quick release, which is showing up on the scoreboard.”
The Mintos put a halt to any comeback late in the second period as Ty Mosimann found the back of the net after a feed from a SMAAAHL leading scorer Logan Barlage.
Austin Lamotte would round out the scoring for the Mintos with a top-corner snipe in the third period.
“That fourth goal was big for us, as we fell asleep a bit in the second period,” Mintos head coach Ken Morrison said.
“We started to get away from our style of game and began to do some more risky plays. All of a sudden, it was a 3-2 game and the guys had to buckle down. We have a lot of young guys on our team, so they’ll have to learn to play the same way all of the time.”
Lamotte, McMillen and Sopotyk each had a goal and an assist for the Mintos, who are in fifth place in the SMAAAHL standings with a 12-9-1 record.
Cale Elder made 30 saves for the visitors while Alm turned aside 41 shots in a losing effort.
The Stars, who have a 9-12-2 mark, fell to ninth in the standings and are one point out of the playoffs after the Swift Current Legionnaires pulled out a stunning 7-1 win over the league-leading Moose Jaw Generals Tuesday night.
They’ll look to regain the coveted eighth spot in the standings this weekend as they’ll visit the Yorkton Maulers for a pair of games.
“We’ve been taking the body a lot more on the road, and we were hitting everyone it seemed when we played Tisdale in their rink last weekend,” Hillis said.
“We were able to wear them down after awhile and that’s what we need to do this weekend.”
The Stars will return to the Civic Centre on Dec. 17 and 18 to take on the Regina Pat Canadians in their last games before Christmas.
