Dakota Boutin knows what it’s like scoring in Mosaic Place and he put his familiar surroundings to good use with a strong opening game for the Prince Albert Mintos to kick off the 2014 Telus Cup.

The former Moose Jaw Generals forward — who joined the Mintos after the player and team parted ways early this season — scored once in the first period and added another assist to help Prince Albert to a 4-1 win over the Toronto Young Nationals in the national championship opening game.

“It’s always good to get the first goal, especially a place that I played just a few months ago,” said Boutin after the win.  “Just to get that first goal and our team keeps on rolling and we go from there.”

After starting the season in Moose Jaw, the two sides parted ways and Boutin ended up in Prince Albert.  He said he felt comfortable coming back into his former home for this big game.

“I know the ice, I know all the bounces and I was pretty excited to come back here and play in front of everybody,” said Boutin.  “I was pretty comfortable.”

The win was Prince Albert’s 15th consecutive at the Telus Cup after winning back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007.  It also kept the momentum going for the team after winning the Western Regional on home ice.

“It’s always nice to get a win right off the bat because the guys gain confidence that they can compete at this level,” said Ken Morrison, head coach of the Mintos.  “We just know all the teams are good and we’re going to be on top of our game every game if we want to have a chance.”

The Mintos got the start they were looking for during the opening game, setting the tone during the first period and getting rewarded with goals from Boutin and Lance Yaremchuk for the early 2-0 lead.

Toronto started to come on after the second period, but the two-goal deficit was too much to overcome.

“I thought we were little bit sluggish, I didn’t think we played great,” said Brett Punchard, head coach of the Young Nationals.  “We didn’t engage in the battle enough and what happens is it’s 4-1.

“They’re a good team and we need more guys going into the battle and we need to get pucks deep in order to win.  We had lots of turnovers at the blue line with no speed, so you’re not going to win that way.”

Penalties hurt both teams in the second period as each team surrendered a power play goal in the frame.  Prince Albert ended up going 2-for-9 with the man advantage, while Toronto was 1-for-7.

The Young Nationals got on the board with 5:08 to go in the second as Mac Graham buried a rebound to cut Prince Albert’s lead to 2-1.  The Mintos answered right back however with a power play marker of their own as Keegan Kjargaard getting his first of the tournament at the side of the net.

Teal Sobkowicz sealed the win for the Mintos just 1:02 in the third period as he caught Toronto on a change and ripped the puck over goalie Izzy Benigno coming down the wing.

Benigno made 35 saves in the loss, while Connor Ingram stopped 30-of-31 shots he faced in the Mintos goal.

Okanagan and Chateauguay Tie 3-3

Two of the expected favourites at the 2014 Telus Cup met on day one and they didn’t disappoint with a highly skilled and back-and-forth game on Monday afternoon.

After the Chateauguay Grenadiers dominated the early portion of the game, the Okanagan Rockets came back strong and picked up a late goal from Liam Finlay to finish the game in a 3-3 tie.

“We started off a little bit slow, but we came back and fought really hard,” said Finlay after the game.  “We were a little rusty and we came on later in the game… We were slow at the start and they were able to hit us, but once we were going we started to get around them and moving their defence.”

“It was a weird game, it was up-and-down, they had some spark and then we had some spark, but it’s normal, it’s the first game of the tournament,” said Bruce Richardson, head coach of the Grenadiers.  “We’ve got to stay positive and we still got a point and we didn’t even play the way we were capable of playing.”

In the first period, it looked as though the Grenadiers were going to have their way with the Pacific Regional champions.  They scored midway through the first period when Tyler Hylland was sprung on a breakaway and finished short side.

The Rockets got stronger as the period went on however, and built momentum towards the end of the period, outshooting the Gernadiers 7-0 over the final seven minutes.  

Okanagan was down a man in the final minutes of the frame, but they still found a way to get on the board.  Brett Young broke in all alone and scored while falling down with just 11 seconds to go in the period.

Chateauguay took control of the game early in the second period.  Jean-Sebastien Taillefer ripped a shot over the glove of Brendan Barry to make it 2-1 and then Mikael Sabourin finished off a beautiful pass from Justin Samson for a two-goal lead in a matter of 1:25.

Again Okanagan got better as the period went on and they really started to show their skill late in the period with Tyson Jost leading the way.  He set up Tanner Wishnowski for his first of the tournament late in the second period to cut the Grenadiers lead to 3-2.

The Rockets came out strong in the third period and were using their speed more to generate chances and counteract the size advantage for the Grenadiers.

They finally found the equalizer just past the midway point of the period when Finlay made no mistake on a backdoor pass for a power play goal.

“Our speed and skill have been our strength all year,” said Mack O’Rourke, head coach of the Rockets.  “I was impressed with the way Quebec played, they were physical and didn’t let us walk to the areas that we like to, so we’re going to have to improve on that.”

For the second straight game in the tournament, both teams special teams were busy.  The Gernadiers went 1-for-8 with the man advantage, while the Rockets were 1-for-5.

“We’ve got to stay disciplined, there’s different rules from Quebec, so it kills momentum when you take penalties,” said Richardson.  “Our special teams did okay tonight, but it’s something that we’ve done really well this year.  These are things that we have to work on.”

Both sides after the game felt that they hadn’t played their best game, but were happy with the end result and hoping to meet again.

Host Generals tie Halifax 2-2

They had to wait 45 days for the start of the tournament, so what was another 47 minutes and 46 seconds – plus 30 shots – for the Moose Jaw Generals to finally find the back of the net in their Telus Cup opener.

Dawson Davidson broke up the shutout for Halifax goalie Justin Ritcey and Ben Verrall made sure the Generals came away with a point as they tied the Halifax McDonalds, 2-2, at Mosaic Place on Monday night.

“I thought we were a little rusty, but a real solid effort for sixty minutes considering the situation we were in,” said Ray Wareham, head coach of the Generals. “I couldn't have asked from anything more from the kids other than maybe a little finish, but you have to give their (goalie) credit, he was fantastic.”

For the first 40 minutes, it looked like the story of the game was going to be Ritcey, as the Generals threw everything they had and the kitchen sink at him, but couldn't find a way to beat the netminder playing in his second straight Telus Cup.

Midway through the second period however, the Generals started to drive the net. They picked up a few penalties in the process, but their presence was felt and it eventually led to their two goals early in the third.

“They did a fantastic job of getting in shooting lanes, I don't know how many blocked shots they had,” said Wareham. “We were trying to get shots through and it was frustrating at times, but the kids stayed with it and we knew if we were able to get one we'd be okay, and fortunately we were able to get a couple.”

Davidson's goal came after a collision at centre ice gave him a free lane into the zone and he ripped a wrist shot past Ritcey's glove to make it 2-1 with 12:14 to go. The equalizer came just 57 seconds later when Ben Verrall's slap shot bounced off a defender in front and into the net to tie the game.

“At the start, pucks weren't really bouncing our way, we had the shots but the pucks just weren't going in, so it was nice to get on the board,” said Davidson, a second-year defenceman with the Generals. “We knew we were there with them and we knew that we had the intensity and we knew if we kept working things would go our way.”

Moose Jaw fired 40 shots on Ritcey, including 15 in the third period, while holding Halifax to just 14 shots on the night and just one in the final frame.

“We hung on for a point there,” said Halifax Head Coach Tim Boyce. “They played very well and if it wasn't for Justin, we wouldn't be sitting here talking about a tie probably. Full marks to our guys too, we competed hard in our own end and probably blocked 20-25 shots, so the kids worked hard.”

The game started great for Halifax as they capitalized on the Generals' rusty play early in the game and opened the scoring when Jordan Yochoff pounced on a rebound and was able to beat Grant Naherniak just 5:25 into the game.

Luc Poirier extended the Macs lead just 2:26 into the second period, but they couldn't muster many shots the rest of the way, or zone time for that matter.

“Now we know what the competition is like out here and we have to be better (Tuesday),” said Boyce. “We have to move our feet a little more and create more offensively. We can't expect to play in our own end for forty minutes and expect to be successful every game.”

After a 45-day layoff between game action, the Generals looked like they found their stride as the game went on after a rusty start. The team feels like the tie was a good building block going into the rest of the week.

“A tie was better than a loss for sure, we could have scored on a couple of other chances, but we'll take it,” said Wareham. “First game after that long of layoff, it's a good stepping stone and now we've just got to build off it.”

The Generals (0-0-1) are back on the ice on Tuesday night against the Okanagan Rockets (0-0-1) at 7:30pm. The early games have the Prince Albert Mintos (1-0-0) facing off with the Chateauguay Grenadiers (0-0-1) at 12:00pm and the Toronto Young Nationals (0-1-0) squaring off with Halifax (0-0-1) at 4:00pm.