By: Ken Oda, minotauroshockey.com
Minot, ND , – The Tauros took two games from the Coulee Region Chill on Friday and Saturday night to push their win streak to four games. The streak has the Tauros four points ahead of both the Chill and Aberdeen Wings in the Central Division standings.
Friday night’s game did not start well for the Tauros. Out-shot in the first period 11-7 it was clear that the visiting Chill had not played a rivalry game the night before as the Tauros had. Things got worse for the Tauros midway through the second when the Chill a pair of goals, just over two minutes apart, to take a 2-0 lead. After the second goal, Tauros’ coach Marty Murray called his timeout and the Tauros finally woke up. Cody Milligan scored on the powerplay to cut the lead in half and then Chance Creger scored on a long blast from the point to tie the game at 18:29 of the second.
The Chill came right back at the Tauros at 2:28 when Sean Lang scored on the powerplay, the goal was his second of the game. Steven Sherman drew the Tauros even from Wes Iverson and Jake O’Borsky just three minutes later. Neither team was able to score though the Tauros kept heavy pressure on for the rest of the game out-shooting the Chill 17-5 in the third period.
Overtime passed without a shot on goal until Chance Creger fired up a shot from the blue line with 14.8 seconds remaining. The shot found the back of the net and the Tauros won 4-3.
On Saturday night the Tauros came out firing, with 20 shots in the first period. Jadin Martin tapped in Iverson’s wrap around try on the powerplay with 1:56 remaining in the first to make it 1-0. Iverson got a goal of his own in the second when he fired a wrist shot from the leftwing boards beating Blake Cates sending him to the bench with the Tauros leading 2-0.
Early in the third Martin scored his second of the game redirecting a point shot from Paul Sorenson to put the Tauros ahead 3-0. Matt Williams ended Tyler Parks’ shutout bid with just 5:07 remaining. Less than a minute later Collin Abitz set up Beau Ricketts who rang a shot off of the post then batted the rebound out of midair and into the net to push the final to 4-1 Tauros.
Three Stars of the Series:
1st Star: Jadin Martin; two goals, two assists, +2 rating.
2nd Star: Chance Creger; two goals, one assist, +5 rating.
3rd Star: Paul Sorenson; two assists, +4 rating.
Next Up: The Tauros stay at home with a pair against the Austin Bruins next weekend. The Bruins are in first place in the Cental. The Tauros took the only meeting of the two teams this season 5-4 in a shootout on November 9th. Friday night’s puck drop is at 7:35 and Saturday night’s is at 8:05. Tickets for both game are available now by clicking the “tickets” tab atop this page; buy your tickets now to avoid the lines on game night.