New Mintos head coach Ken Morrison said he’s looking forward to the match-up.
“It’s a good rivalry and they’re a good team,” he said. “Hopefully we can give them a good series.”
The two teams faced off against each other on six occasions during the regular season. Although the Mintos came away victorious after the first encounter, a 5-4 shootout win at home on Sept. 13, 2015, the Trojans would take four of the next five games by 4-2, 3-2, 5-3 and 5-4 scores.
But Morrison said regular season records don’t count much in the playoffs. Everybody gets a fresh start.
“It’s a brand-new season. What happened in the regular season is kind of irrelevant. It comes down to a best-of-five series, so like I’ve been telling the guys, anything can happen in the playoffs,” he said.
“Just because you finish ahead of another team doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a shoe-in to win in the playoffs. They’re a good team but I think we can give them some good games.”
Two-thirds of the Mintos squad is composed of rookie players who will be suiting up for the SMAAAHL playoffs for the first time. While Morrison said, “It helps if you have some guys that have been there before,” he is confident that his first-year players will be prepared for the postseason after getting 44 league games under their belts.
“I don’t consider them rookies anymore because they’ve played a full regular season,” he said. “So they just have to … mentally be ready to play and physically be ready to play and compete.”
For the rest of the week the Mintos will be attending practice daily to work on “all facets of (their) game,” according to Morrison. The series starts on the road and the coach is hoping to come away with a win in the Trojans’ building.
“What we’re telling the guys is we want to do our best to win our games at home and then we’ve got three chances to beat them once in their rink,” he said.
“That’s basically what it comes down to: We have to win one there.”
Tale of the Tape
The Prince Albert Mintos kick off their best-of-five playoff series against the Tisdale Trojans on the road this weekend. The teams faced each other six times during the regular season with Tisdale coming away with four wins.
Record: Prince Albert -- 23-19-0-2; Tisdale -- 27-12-0-5
Last 10: Prince Albert -- 4-6-0-0; Tisdale -- 6-3-0-1
Top scorers: Prince Albert -- Erik Gardiner (59 points); Tisdale -- Kristopher Bzdel (49 points)
Goals for/against: Prince Albert -- 141/156; Tisdale -- 145/117
Last meeting: Andrew Hawes scored with under five minutes remaining in regulation to lead the Trojans to a 5-4 win over the Mintos at the Tisdale Recplex on Jan. 6, 2016.
