Austin, MN – The Minotauros head into the Christmas break with a split in Austin and a solid hold on third place in the Central Division and a chance to strike at the second place Bobcats coming out of the break.
The Bruins jumped out to an early lead on Friday night (box score) and, despite their best effort, the Tauros could not recover. Connor Mylymok, Kevin Gabor, and Adam Szubert each had goals in the first 12:05 of the game to make it 3-0 Austin. Dan Russell broke the string of Austin goals with his seventh of the season late in the first period and answered Ben Almquist goal early in the second with his eighth of the year to keep the Tauros close at 4-2. Two more Bruins markers however would have the Tauros down 6-2 entering the third. Kevin Ness and Nik Armstrong-Kingkade would pull the Tauros back within two but a pair of penalties kill the Tauro momentum. After the Bruins hit the empty net Armstong-Kingkade scored his second of the night with just under two minutes to play but the Tauros comeback effort fell short for a 7-5 final in the loss.
Saturday night (box score) both teams appeared more focused on defense. Mylymok eventually opened the scoring on the power play when a cross ice pass was deflected right to him. Armstrong-Kingkade answered with a power play goal for the Tauros in the middle of the second when he was able to pick a corner over Brett Miller’s glove. Early in the third with each team having a player in the penalty boxes Owen Baumgartner flipped a soft wrister past Miller to give the Tauros their first lead of the weekend. But on a net-mouth scramble in the waning moments Almquist tied the game with 0:01 on the clock. Overtime solved nothing and the game went to a three-round shootout. Armstrong-Kingkade scored for the Tauros in the second round and Ben Garrity stopped all three Austin shooters for the win.
Next up for the Tauros is Christmas break followed by three games against the Bismarck Bobcats. Tickets for the Tauros home game against the Bobcats on December 28th are available through the “Tickets” tab atop this page.