By: Ken Oda, minotauroshockey.com
Coming off of an impressive victory in Wenatchee, the Minotauros head to Fresno to take on the Monsters. With spirits already high from the win the Tauros also get Jake Clifford and Mason Morelli back as the two high school aged players could only attend one of the two weekends of the long road trip. Clifford and Morelli are sixth and seventh on the team in scoring respectively.
The Tauros top line of Tim Donohue (6g 5a), Lucas Oliver (3g 8a), and Cameron Rowat (2g 6a) continue to be hold the top three scoring spots on the team. Jadin Martin (2g 6a) and Jake O’Borsky (2g 5a) each used big weekend in Wenatchee to pull into the top five on the team early in the season. Tyler Parks stole the show in net last weekend in Wenatchee, and has played well over his last four starts after a rough few outing upon returning from the USHL. Parks has a .926 SV% over his last four appearances and is 2-2-0 over that span.
For the Monsters offense as also come primarily from their top line. Mikhail Bushinski leads Fresno with five goals and six helpers. Mitchell Snyder (5g 5a) and Sean Kalbak (5g 3a) round out the Monsters’ top end scoring. Since Tomas Sholl joined the Monsters he and Mac Haight have split time in net. Both have put up respectable numbers (Sholl 2.77 GAA and .910 SV% and Haight 3.09 GAA .889 SV%) but neither has seen it result in a positive record. Sholl is 1-3-1 and Haight is 4-5-1 as the Monsters ride a six game winless streak. When last these two teams met in Minot, the Tauros put four past Haight in a loss and beat Sholl 2-1 in a shootout.
Players to Watch: Jadin Martin: last season’s leading scorer for the Tauros got off to a slow start. But a three point game in last Saturday’s win over Wenatchee may be a sign that he is headed in the right direction. In two games against the Monsters this season Martin has two assists.
Watch the Game: As always the Tauros games will be on Fasthockey.com. Friday night’s affair gets going at 9:35 p.m. and Saturday’s at 9:05 p.m.