Schedule Update 1-5-2021

Jan 5, 2021

Minot, ND – With Covid restrictions wreaking havoc on the first half of the NAHL schedule the Central and Midwest Divisions were forced to reschedule the second half of the season to allow Minnesota based teams to play a full slate of games.  To accommodate this the NAHL added three weeks onto the regular season which will now run through May 15th.  In order to help the Minnesota teams play a full schedule changes needed to be made to the Minotauros schedule as well.  The additional weeks also allowed for all of the Dakota based teams, who have mostly kept playing this season to eliminate some of their weekday contests.  Finally, in a quirk of the Covid rescheduling, the Minotauros will play a weekend on the Pepsi Rink at Maysa Arena as the away team.

The Tauros new schedule resembles the original schedule as most of the dates remain the same, also it is home heavy at the start.  The Tauros have 38 games remaining on the calendar and play eight of the first nine at home.   The season will restart for the Tauros January 15th and 16th with the Midwest Division’s Kenai River Brown Bears coming to the Maysa for the first time since 2017-18 season.  The Tauros will then head to Aberdeen on January 27th for their first regular season game outside of North Dakota since they beat St. Cloud 5-3 on March 7, 2020.  The Tauros will then return home to host the St. Cloud Norsemen to close out January.

February will open with the Tauros playing a “road” series at home with the Brown Bears returning to the Maysa Arena to play as the “home” team.  Despite the games not being Tauro home games, the Tauros will handle ticketing for the games and the games will be part of Minotauros Season Ticket Packages (see important ticketing info below).  The Minnesota Wilderness will then come to the Maysa for an early Valentine’s date on February 12th and 13th.

After that the Tauros head on the road for a month, with weekend sets against the Wings, Wilderness, and Norsemen in that order before finally returning to North Dakota for a home-and-home set against the Bobcats that kicks off in Minot on March 12th.  Then the Tauros will celebrate St. Patrick’s day with a Wednesday game in Aberdeen before hosting the Wings on March 19th and 20th for the Tauros final home games in March.  The Tauros will end March with their first visit to the Spam Can in Austin, MN, to take on the Bruins.

A busy April kicks off with a weekend trip to St. Cloud followed by one of two remaining home weekday games on April 6th against Aberdeen.  That is followed by a three-game weekend, starting with two in Cloquet, MN, against the Wilderness before heading south to St. Cloud for a Sunday brunch with the Norsemen which will complete the busiest stretch of the season for the Tauros with four games in six days in three cities.  The Austin Bruins will come to Minot on April 16th and 17th, followed by the Wings’ other weekday visit on April 22nd.  The Tauros close the month with another three game weekend, this time stopping in St. Cloud for a Thursday night game before continuing down the road to Austin for a typical weekend set.   The Tauros will then close out the regular season hosting the Bismarck Bobcats on May 7th and 8th and then heading to Aberdeen on May 14th and 15th.

Should the second place Tauros remain in the top four seeds in the Central Division they will advance to the Robertson Cup Playoffs for the eighth consecutive time.  That is the second longest current streak in the league behind Fairbank’s 15 playoff run.  The Playoffs would begin May 21st and follow the same best of five series format through the Divisional Rounds as always followed by the four division champions meeting in Robertson Cup Tournament to crown a champion.

Ticketing Update

Yesterday the Governor’s Office announced a change to the North Dakota Covid-19 Risk Level, lowering it from “High” (orange) to “Moderate” (yellow).  This allows for event venues to increase to 50% capacity and the Minotauros will continue to comply that and all N.D. Smart Restart Guidelines.  As a result of the increased capacity, the Minotauros will place additional hand sanitizer stations around the Maysa Arena Concourse and continue to offer socially distant seating options in designated sections.  Masks, will continue to be required per the ND Smart Restart Large Gathering Guidelines.

Due to the dramatic changes in the schedule Season Ticket Holders with PRINTED paper ticket packets will need to request new printed tickets for the remaining games.  Season Ticket Holders with digital tickets or the “One Ticket” will not have to take action as your ticket account will update automatically.   Additionally, the increased capacity will allow for us to resume selling season ticket packages and honoring flex tickets.  Season Ticket Holders should also be able to begin using their flex credits.

Due to the limited number of tickets available, we continue to recommend that fans purchase their tickets online in advance of the game through the “Tickets” tab atop this page or by clicking here.  The Minotauros office will also be open from 10:00 a.m. until  6:00 p.m. on non-game days for fans to utilize flex tickets in advance of scheduled games.  The Minotauros box office will reopen on game days if we have not reached our capacity limit prior to doors opening.

Due to what will undoubtedly be a high number of questions please direct any ticketing or ND Smart Restart questions to the Minotauros staff via email at contact@minotauroshockey.com.

Individual Game and Season Ticket Packages will go back on sale at noon on Wednesday, January 6th.  All Individual Game Tickets will be priced at our discounted rate of $8 for the remainder of the season.