Take Flight

Oct 11, 2012

By: Ken Oda, minotauroshockey.com

 

After a rough start to the season, the Minotauros finally start divisional play with the Aberdeen Wings this weekend.  With a difficult draw at the NAHL Combat Hockey Showcase followed by Wenatchee and Fresno the Tauros have had one of the most difficult schedules in the league to start the season.  While the Tauros managed only three standings points over the first eight games, the rest of the division has also struggled.  Only Brookings and Austin have winning records in the Central Division, leaving third place Bismark and the Tauros separated by only three points.

Aberdeen sits just one point ahead of the Minotauros in the standings and enters the weekend set having dropped their last six games.  The Wings are lead offensively by Peter Krieger, who has two goals and seven helpers on the season and Joe Sullivan leads the Wings with six goals and an assist.  Heinz Koster has four goals on the year to round out the Wings players with multiple goals.  In net Marcus Zelzer has carried the load for the Wings with a .915 SV% and a 3.15 GAA in his six games.

For the Tauros Lucas Oliver (2g 4a) and Jake Clifford (0g 6a) are tied for the team lead in points with six apiece.  The Tauros have featured a fairly balanced offensive attack with their 18 goals coming from 12 different players.  Other than Oliver; Tim Donohue, Cam Rowat, Ryan Doner, and Mason Morelli, are the only players with multiple goals, each having two.  Ryan Ruck has received most of the work in net appearing in five games with 3.14 GAA and .869 SV%.  Ruck has been in net for both games in which the Tauros have receive points. 

The Number: 2.25; each team has scored 18 goals over eight games for a 2.25 goals per game average. 

Game Info: Tickets for Friday night are still available on at the door or by clicking on the “tickets” tab atop this page.  Doors open at 6:30 p.m. for the 7:35 p.m. puck drop.  Saturday night’s game in Aberdeen starts at 7:15 and can be seen on fasthockey.com.  Be sure to find the Minotauros on Facebook and Twitter for all of the latest Tauros news.