By: Ken Oda, minotauroshockey.com
Minot, ND – The Minotauros hosted their inaugural Family Weekend and the players treated their families to two exciting games. The result was the Tauros taking three of four points on the weekend and pulling within one point of the Bismarck Bobcats for first place in the Central.
On Friday night (full box) the Wings struck first just as they had last Friday night in Aberdeen. This time however the Tauros answered quickly. Just 12 seconds after Jonatan Gustafsson (1g 1a) gave the Wings a 1-0 lead Max Reisinger (8g 19a) drew the Tauros even. Jared Brandt (3g 16a) gave the Tauros the lead early in the second with a power play blast, but Kyle Seimers (2g 4a) scored with the Wings man-advantage to make it 2-2 after two periods. That score would hold through the rest of regulation and overtime sending the teams to a shootout. Gunner Rivers (9-8-2) stopped the first two shooters but was beat by Matt Pulver (4g 6a) in the third round. Reisinger had a chance to answer and appeared to beat Peter Thome (10-13-7) but the puck stopped right on the goal line.
Saturday night saw the goaltenders continue to frustrate the shooters. Through 40 minutes of play Thome stopped all 22 Tauros shots while Lucas Murray (13-10-1) stopped all 20 Aberdeen attempts. Christian Mohs (13g 21a) broke the scoreless tie 1:04 into the third and James LaDouce (7g 17a) added a shorthanded goal at 5:34 to make it 2-0. Murray would stop all nine Aberdeen shots in the third to earn his first career junior shutout in the 2-0 win.
Next up for the Tauros is a return to the road. Friday night the Tauros are in Bismarck with a chance to take over first place in the NAHL Central. Then the Tauros head to Aberdeen to take on the Wings.