Minot, ND – For the first time since early December the Tauros play games on consecutive weekends as the Kenai River Brown Bears come to Minot. The Tauros will have their shortest commute ever to road games as they will technically be the away team this weekend with the vagabond Brown Bears playing as the home team. Covid has forced both the Brown Bears and their Alaska based brethren the Fairbanks Ice Dogs to move to the lower 48 this season. Both had set up shop in Minnesota, but due to Covid restrictions the Brown Bears have elected to play some of their “home” games at their opponent’s building.
The result is that the Tauros host the Brown Bears for the second time in less than a month. The Brown Bears swept the Tauros in their last visit to the Maysa in a pair of games that saw more bad blood than expected for two teams that play in different divisions. Porter Schachle did the most damage for the Bears against the Tauros that weekend posting two goals, an assist, and 29 penalty minutes. Overall Schachle is second on the team in scoring with 15 points in 15 games; Max Helgeson’s 20 points including a goal and an assist against the Tauros are the team high. In goal Luke Pacicich has been stellar for the Brown Bears posting a .944 SV% and 2.18 GAA for a 9-2-0 record through 12 games for Kenai.
For the Tauros Brett Roloson and Gabe Temple had combined to give the Tauros a 2-0 lead on the Friday night against Kenai, but the Tauros would eventually lose that game 5-2. In goal Keenan Rancier, who committed to NCAA DI Minnesota State yesterday, stopped 75 of 83 shots that weekend taking a couple of hard luck losses. The Tauros bounced back getting their first win of the 2021 calendar year last Saturday with the offense breaking out for four goals, with Cade Stibbe and Kaiden Scott both breaking out of slumps. Scott had three points on the weekend giving him 14 on the season which leads the team.
Despite the Tauros technically being the away team this weekend the games are included in Minotauros Season Ticket Holder Packages and individual game tickets are available through the “Tickets” tab atop this page or by clicking here.