By: Ken Oda, minotauroshockey.com
Aberdeen, SD – The Minotauros have won five of their last seven games, while Aberdeen has gone 1-5-1 over that same span allowing the Minotauros to gain ground on the third place Wings. With only two more games against the Wings, including tonight’s, the Tauros can not afford to drop points in head to head meetings with the division foe.
The Tauros will be shorthanded tonight as the recently acquired Michael Louria is not able join the team until after the weekend. Also not yet with the team is newly acquired Luke Voltin, though the Tauros hope to have him in time for Friday’s game against Bismarck. Voltin was acquired today from the USHL’s Lincoln Stars where he had 54 points over 128 games over the last three seasons; he also played for the Des Moines Buccaneers and the U.S.N.T.D.P. As for the Minotauros that will be in Aberdeen, Jake McCann leads the team with four goals and two assists against the Wings. Goaltender Brandon Wildung has faced the Wings in five of the ten meetings holding them to just seven goals in those games.
Meanwhile the Tauros will need to find a way to neutralize Jonathan Grebosky, who has five goals and five assists against the Tauros. The Tauros have held Wings leadings scorer T.J. Roo relatively quite, with only three assists in eight games on the year. In net Chad Catt has allowed only 13 goals in seven meetings with the Tauros this year.
With every point precious down the stretch tonight marks the start of a big weekend for the Tauros. After tonight’s showdown in Aberdeen the Tauros return to the Maysa to host the Bismarck Bobcats on SRT Communications Night. Then on Saturday the Tauros head to North Dakota’s capital city for another game with the Cats. Tickets for Friday’s game are still available for purchase by clicking on the “Tickets” tab atop this page.