Ken Oda, minotauroshockey.com
The rivalry of highway 83 continues this weekend as the Minotauros and the Bobcats play another home-and-home set on Friday and Saturday nights. The teams will faceoff first in Bismarck on Friday followed by a rematch in Minot on Saturday. This will be the second home-and-home set between the two clubs this season, the Bobcats swept the first in late October.
The Minotauros roster has gone through a slight overhaul since the last meeting between the two clubs. There are six new Tauros on the roster who were not on the team the last time the clubs played. Troy Degler and Jake Howie have shown instant chemistry on a line with veteran Cam Rowat. The trio has combined for four goals and seven assists through the last four games. While Tim Donohue remains out of the line-up with an injury the Tauros do get Krisztian Nagy back; Nagy had been representing his country in IIHF play. Tanner Holmquist joins the Tauros as well via trade from the Minnesota Wilderness. Holmquist was slowed by injury to start the season, but posted 16 points for Aberdeen last year. Brandon Wildung and Merrick Madsen will most likely continue to split time in the Tauros net.
Bismarck comes off a pair of losses last weekend to Austin in which they were shutout and managed just 18.5 shots per game. Of the Bobcats 46 goals, 18 have come from just two players Filip Starzynski and Stanislav Dzakhov. In the last meetings between the two clubs Huba Sekesi had both a pair of goals and assists, to account for four of his eight points on the season. Aaron Nelson has started all but one game for the Bobcats and has played well allowing just 2.18 GAA.
From now until December 13th if you bring a canned food item to a Minotauros home game will receive two dollars off of admission. Tickets for Saturday’s game are still available by clicking the “tickets” tab atop this page.