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Weekend Preview 11/13 & 11/14 vs. St. Cloud Norsemen After an off weekend, the Tauros are back at home on Friday and Saturday, November 13th and 14th, at 7:35pm to take on the St. Cloud Norsemen at The Maysa once again. With the Bismarck Bobcats in action last weekend, the Tauros stand in second place in the Central Division with two games in hand on their in-state rival. The most recent series with Watertown was a tale of two games. Friday featured a dominant performance between the pipes from Lukas Hoglind, who stopped 39 of Watertown’s 40 shots on net in a 4-1 win. However, on Saturday, Watertown grabbed a little sliver of leverage and rode it to a 4-2 win to snap the Tauros’ second extended winning streak of the season. Coming into this weekend, the Tauros will be on home ice against a familiar foe, the St. Cloud Norsemen, who come into the weekend at 4-12-0 having been swept by Watertown in some high scoring affairs in a home-and-home. The Tauros are 4-0-0 against St. Cloud this season – all at The Maysa – but the Norsemen been slowly improving each time the Tauros match up with them. They are top 10 in the NAHL in power play goals, scoring at an 18.52% clip. The one thing that has remained consistent, however, is their struggling penalty kill, which is second to last in the NAHL at 72.0%.
The Minotauros power play went goalless in Watertown, but the Shamrocks do boast the best penalty kill in the NAHL, and neither side was in the penalty box much. Special teams is always a point of emphasis no matter who you play, but the St. Cloud penalty kill has had plenty of sample size to show what they are, and it could be a chance for Minot to start to stack up PPGs. St. Cloud has had a difficult time scoring this season with just 39 goals in 16 games (third worst in the NAHL). On the other side, the Tauros are the best team in the NAHL at keeping pucks out of the net. Their 2.00 GAA is tied with Bismarck in that regard. Goaltending is a big contributor to that stat, as both Lukas Hoglind and Ryan Bodnar are letting in less than two goals per game and have save percentages north of .920. The defense for Minot has also been stout, and while they wavered at times in Watertown, the Tauros’ puck possession in the first four matchups with St. Cloud certainly keeps the defense from being under siege for long periods of time. Puck possession will be a key against the Norsemen. If the Tauros possess the puck the way they have in the first four meetings, they’ll be on their way to another successful home weekend. This weekend is Military Appreciation Weekend at The Maysa presented by Northern Bottling, with both Friday and Saturday nights featuring moments of recognition and honor for the brave men and women who serve or have served in the armed forces. Tickets are going fast, so be sure to grab yours at Tickets.MinotaurosHockey.com or download the Tauros Hockey Mobile App. Puck drop for both nights is at 7:35pm CT. Can’t make it to The Maysa? Stream Tauros games live or on demand on NAHL TV or tune in to the Minot Minotauros Facebook Live Audio Feed. |
