By Jeff D'Andrea

Mintos OT loss to Maulers ‘wasn’t pretty’

Nov 12, 2018 | 3:18 PM

Goalies got tackled, dump-ins turned into goals and would-be game-winners were disallowed in a wild Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League game Monday afternoon at the Art Hauser Centre.

But the most important event of all was Josh Peppler’s overtime goal to give his last place Yorkton Maulers a 3-2 OT victory over the Prince Albert Mintos. Peppler got low to shake off the check of Mintos defenceman Jake Huska and muscle a low wrist shot into the back of the net.

That’s the Maulers’ second win of the season (2-18). The Mintos (10-6-1) lost their second straight game and their fourth in their last five games.

“It wasn’t pretty,” Mintos head coach Ken Morrison said.

The first 19 seconds were sure pretty as Turner McMillen went five-hole on Maulers goaltender Aiden Elmy shortly after the opening faceoff.

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The Maulers responded with a power play goal, Brandt Fiske batted a rebound out of the air to equalize.

Alex Von Sprecken restored the Mintos lead later in the opening frame with a hard and low point blast.

But then came the wacky stuff. Maulers defenceman Rylan Donald fooled Mintos goaltender Carter Woodside with a dump in. Woodside tried to catch the floating dump in backhanded, like a shortstop fielding a bouncing ground ball, but it handcuffed him and went into the net.

“Their second goal was kind of a weird one,” Morrison said. “I didn’t really see it, I think it they just dumped it in and it got by us there. But I mean, that shouldn’t really be the difference in the game. Then we had some chances we didn’t bury and [Yorkton] kept believing they could do it, because we allowed them to stay in the game.”

That goal turned out to be a huge moment in the game, as the Mintos were never able to restore their lead. They came close on a number of occasions, as rookie forward Ashton Ferster thought he scored. But his goal was disallowed as it was ruled he kicked it in during the second period. He had a great chance in the third from the slot as the Mintos carried the play, but his wrister hit the post and stayed out.

That forced overtime and set the table for Peppler to score. The Mintos may have been playing in their 18^th game of the season, but that was their first time playing in a 3-on-3 overtime this year. That showed unfortunately, as Peppler ended the game 1:17 into the extra frame.

“First experience of overtime, we have guys on the wrong side of the puck at times,” Morrison said.

Frustrations boiled over at times during the game. At the end of the first period, Mauler Kyler Opp crashed the net and delivered a beautiful, textbook tackle that any football coach would applaud on Mintos goaltender Carter Woodside. The problem is, Opp wasn’t playing football. Instead of helping his defence on the gridiron, Opp was issued a major penalty for charging and a game misconduct.

Cohner Saleski, Mintos forward and the common call-up for the Raiders, got into some trouble himself. At the end of the second period, Saleski was given a four-minute penalty for head contact after some rough play in the corner, and a 10-minute misconduct.

Upcoming action

The Mintos will make their first trip to the brand new Merlis Belsher Place on Thursday, taking on the Saskatoon Contacts on the road. They’ll play the Regina Pat Canadians back at the Art Hauser Centre on Sunday at 1:30 p.m.

Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW