by: Ken Oda, gotauros.com
Aberdeen, SD – The Minot Minotauros accomplished their goal this weekend heading down to Aberdeen and taking home ice away from the top seeded Wings. The Wings defended their home rink with a 6-0 victory on Friday night in Game One before the Tauros bounced back with a 2-0 victory on Saturday to give themselves a chance to eliminate the Wings by defending winning Games Three and Four in the Pepsi Rink at Maysa Arena next weekend.
Friday’s game saw the Tauros start strong but the first period ended in a scoreless draw. Then the second period saw everything that could go wrong for the Tauros do just that. Top Prospects goaltender Samu Lonkila made just four saves while not getting much help from the defense in front of him and the Tauros went into the locker room for the second intermission trailing 6-0 after 40 minutes. The third period saw the Wings mostly sit back and protect their six-goal cushion and the game finished with the same score.
Saturday saw a similar start to the game. The Tauros played a solid road period including killing an Aberdeen power play but still could not solve Matt Vernon in the Aberdeen net. The Tauros did well to limit the Wings offensively in the second as well but still could not get one past Vernon and the Wings defense. Finally in the middle of the third period, Grant Loven flung a backhander bar down over the glove of Vernon to give the Tauros their first goal and lead of the series. From there Samu Lonkila had the Tauros covered stopping every Wing’s attempt the rest of the way completing a shutout and Alex Adams hit the Wings empty net to seal the victory at 2-0.
Tauros Head Coach and General Manager Marty Murray was happy with the overall results; “when you’re on the road you go in looking for the split. Last night was a rough one still trying to figure out what happened in the second. It’s a credit to our guys that they came into the building that is so hard to win in and game out with the big win.”
With the split in Aberdeen the Tauros have ensured that Game Four of the best-of-five will be played on The Pepsi Rink at Maysa Arena next Saturday night; if needed Game Five would be back in Aberdeen on Monday April 23rd. Tickets for both games in Minot are available now through the “Tickets” tab atop this page or by clicking here. Season Ticket Holders have until 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday April 17th to claim Game Three tickets and 12:00 p.m. on April 20th to claim Game Four tickets or their tickets will be released to the general public. To claim your season tickets login here using the email account you provided when you signed up for season tickets.