Minot, ND – The Minot Minotauros continued their run of weekend splits for the third weekend in a row, rebounding from a Friday road loss with a win Saturday at home. The run of splits has seen the Tauros fall from their perch atop the Central Division to third place just a point behind the Aberdeen Wings and Austin Bruins in the standings.
Friday’s game saw the Tauros struggle from the start taking a penalty just 42 second into the game. The Bobcats failed to score on the power play but the newest Cat, Bartek Bison, scored just 9:02 into his Bobcat career to give Bismarck the lead. Bison would get his second as a Cat just 1:10 into the second period to put the Tauros into a 2-0 hole and Bismarck would add one more before the second intermission to take a 3-0 lead into the locker room. The Tauros pushed back in the third but could not solve John Roberts who stopped all 30 shots he saw for a shutout. A late power play goal by Sam Malinski pushed the final to 4-0. The shutout by Roberts was the first time the Minotauros had been held scoreless by Bismarck since December 31, 2015.
Saturday saw the Tauros playing just their second home game in the first 12 games of the season. Wilmer Skoog gave the Tauro fans reason to cheer early scoring just 7:33 into the game. That goal held up as the games only goal until late in the second period when Nick Grabko mishandled a puck behind the Tauro net. The puck squirted to the front for a tap into the vacated net by Tim Piechowski. Less than a minute later Jacob Marti scored with an extra attacker on due to a delayed penalty to give Bismarck the lead with just 12 seconds left in the second period. A slew of penalties to start the third led to the Tauros having a four-on-three power play and Fritz Belisle was able to tie the game for the Tauros. The Tauros would outshoot the Cats 16-2 in the third period but could not find the game winner in regulation. After an Alex Pollock hooking call with 2:17 to play in overtime the Tauros would get their second four-on-three power play of the game. On the ensuing power play Didrik Henbrant found a Skoog rebound and batted it into the cage for the game winner.
Next up for the Tauros is a return trip to Brookings to take on the Blizzard. The Blizzard won just their second game of the season on Saturday night and will certainly looking to avenge the Tauros two game sweep by a combined 13-0 score from the Blizzard home opening weekend. Both games in Brookings start at 7:05 with 6:50 pregame shows on all three outlets of the Minotauros Network, AM 1390 KRRZ, HockeyTV.com, and the Listen Live tab atop this page.