Ken Oda, minotauroshockey.com
Minot, ND – The Minotauros bounced back from an embarrassing defeat on Friday night with an inspiring win on Saturday in a weekend series with the Minotauros. The Minotauros went to Bismarck on Friday night and dropped a 6-1 decision to the Bobcats. Then after returning to the Maysa Arena on Saturday night, the Minotauros turned the tables on the Bobcats with a big third period to win 6-4.
On Friday (full box) the Bobcats struck early and often. Filip Starzynki opened the scoring in the first with a power play goal giving the Bobcats a 1-0 lead. Merrick Madsen would keep the score close until late in the second period stopping 16 of the first 17 shots, but the Bobcats would fire 10 shots in the final 5:35 of the period. Madsen was only able to stop seven and the Tauros pushed the lead to 4-0 after 40 minutes. Colton Kramer finally got the Tauros on the board at 7:21 of the third, but 4-1 was as close as the Tauros would get. A pair of late Bismarck goals would push the final to 6-1.
Saturday initially appeared to follow the same script (full box). After Stanislav Dzakhov opened the scoring at 11:03 of the first Cullen Willox pushed the lead to 2-0 with just 32 seconds remaining in the period. Johnny Walker got the Tauros on the board at 7:26 of the second with a shot from the blue line that pinballed off players in front of the goal and past Aaron Nelson to cut the lead to 2-1.
Willox pushed the lead to two goals for the second time on the evening when he one-timed a shot past Brandon Wildung on the rush. Kramer got his second as a Tauro with less than a minute to play in the second when he directed Kyle Kruenegel’s shot from the point with the Tauros on the power play.
For the third time on the evening the Bobcats pushed their lead to two when Tyler Dunagan squeaked a shot between Wildung and the post at 10:27 of the final period. Then the Tauros offense exploded. Jake Howie scored just eight second later, taking a pass from Kruenegel and after dancing around a Bobcat defender at the blue line, walked in and fired a shot just under the crossbar to cut the lead back to one. Just two minutes later Howie found Cam Rowat driving to the net and the Tauros’ leading goal scorer added his sixth of the season to tie the game. The Tauros were not done however and with 2:54 remaining Jon Lizotte fired a slap shot that Nelson never saw into the top of the net to give the Tauros a 5-4 lead. Tyler Shipstad added an empty net goal with six second remaining to ensure the 6-4 victory for the Tauros.
The Tauros head to Richfield, MN, next weekend to take on the Minnesota Magicians on Friday and Saturday night. Then a rematch with the Bobcats takes place on Wednesday in a Thanksgiving appetizer in Bismarck. Then the Tauros will cap off the busy week by hosting the Aberdeen Wings on November 29th and 30th at the Maysa. Tickets for those games are still available by clicking the “tickets” tab atop this page.