Ice hockey: Wild spoil Nats' opener
<p>Glacier's Chris Cutshall (8) looks to shoot after colliding with a Wild defender Thursday night during the Nationals' home loss to Gillette at the Stumptown Ice Den in Whitefish. Sept. 19, 2013 in Whitefish, Montana. (Patrick Cote/Daily Inter Lake)</p>
<p>Gillette players celebrate after scoring on Glacier's Jake Mullen (1) Thursday night during the Nationals' home loss to Gillette at the Stumptown Ice Den in Whitefish. Sept. 19, 2013 in Whitefish, Montana. (Patrick Cote/Daily Inter Lake)</p>
<p>Glacier's Paul Kinder (22) looks to move the puck up ice Thursday night during the Nationals' home loss to Gillette at the Stumptown Ice Den in Whitefish. Sept. 19, 2013 in Whitefish, Montana. (Patrick Cote/Daily Inter Lake)</p>
WHITEFISH — TJ McMinn scored a hat trick to help the Gillette (Wyo.) Wild to a 6-3 win over the Glacier Nationals in the season American West Hockey League opener for both teams Thursday at Stumptown Ice Den.
Glacier (0-1) shrugged off a slow start and knotted the score at 3 midway through the second period, but Gillette’s Darren Banks scored on a wraparound toward the end of the second and the Wild seized control with a dominant third.
“I think they got a little bit better as the game went on,” Nationals coach Joakim Falt said of the Wild. “We came out flat and weren’t prepared for battle. We weren’t prepared to capitalize on the power play.”
The Nationals were 0 for 4 on the power play and wasted an 84-second 5-on-3 in the first period that could’ve reversed the game’s momentum after McMinn scored twice in the first 11 minutes.
Nationals captain Paul Kinder fired a wrist shot past Wild goaltender Sean Kelley 29 seconds into the second period to put the Nationals on the board, but Dalton McCann answered for Gillette (0-1) less than two minutes later to give the Wild a 3-1 lead.
The ice tilted in Glacier’s favor as the second period wore on with the Nationals creating numerous scoring chances with a high-energy forecheck. John Tesarek turned an offensive zone takeaway into a scoring chance 2:33 into the period, but his wrist shot was gloved by Kelley.
Kinder netted his second goal at 6:02 with a wrister over Kelley’s glove and Brett Fernandez evened the score five minutes later with shot that beat Kelley low to the stick side.
A pair of penalties sapped Glacier’s momentum as Corbin Emery went to the box for tripping at 10:54 and Chris Cutshall joined him 33 seconds later with a holding penalty.
After a pair of dangerous chances on the ensuing 5-on-3, Banks netted the go-ahead goal just as Emery’s penalty expired.
“Five-on-5 we definitely outplayed them, but we took a couple lazy penalties and they capitalized,” Kinder said.
Gillette kept Glacier pinned in its own end for much of the third period. Brandon Castleberry made it 5-3 at 9:24 with a breakaway goal and McMinn finished his hat trick at 16:07.
“We just got way too relaxed,” Kinder said. “We came out flat, lazy and weren’t ready to play in that last period for sure.”
Falt said his team looked nervous.
“Reality hit them,” he said. “It’s a fairly young team and they weren’t ready. It was a wake-up call for a lot of the players.”
The Nationals host Gillette again today at 7:05.
Gillette222—6
Glacier030—3
First period
Gil - TJ McMinn (Brandon Castleberry, Moco Willis), 7:30
Gil - McMinn, 11:02
Second period
Gla - Paul Kinder (Cody Albert, Jacob Hayes), 0:29
Gil - Dalton McCann (Greg Sauers, McMinn), 2:18
Gla - Kinder (Brett Fernandez), 6:02
Gla - Fernandez (Kinder, Adam Dalton), 10:21
Gil - PP Darren Banks (Willis, Nick Mead), 13:22
Third period
Gil - Castleberry, 9:24
Gil - McMinn (Castleberry), 16:07
Shots on goal - Gillette 41, Glacier 30. Saves - Gillette 27 (Sean Kelley), Glacier 35 (Jake Mullen). Power plays - Gillette 1-4, Glacier 0-4. Penalty minutes - Gillette 23, Glacier 23.