Game Info
Friday: 7:35 p.m., tickets
Saturday: 7:35 p.m., tickets
Storyline The Minotauros and Blizzard meet for the second weekend in a row having split last weekend in Brookings. The split kept the Tauros tied with the Minnesota Wilderness for third place in the Central Division while Brookings remains in the cellar.
Tauros
For the Tauros the season, and most weekends, has been the tale of two teams. On Fridays the Tauros 6-10-1 this season despite starting 5-2-0 on the first night of weekend sets. Meanwhile on Saturdays the Tauros are 12-4-0 and have outscored opponents 59-40 when closing out the weekend. The Saturday success has kept the Tauros in the thick of the playoff race and shown that the Tauros have the ability to beat anyone; however, their 1-8-1 record over the last 10 Fridays has seen the Tauros fall from first place at Thanksgiving to their current spot battling with Minnesota and Bismarck for the final two playoff spots.
The Tauro offense remains among the best in the league ranked fifth overall averaging 3.30 goals per game. Veteran forwards Keenan Lund (14g 23a), Taylor Lantz (14g 16a), and David Raisanen (13g 17a), each have at least 30 points to lead the Tauros offense. They have started to bounce back defensively as well moving closer to the top ten after Ben Garrity and Nicholas Grabko have each posted a shutout in the last two weeks.
Blizzard
The last place Blizzard have played their best hockey of late going 5-2-1 over their last eight games. Despite that success they remain ranked last in both offense and defense scoring just 1.90 goals per game and allowing 4.23. As one would expect from a last place team near the trade deadline the Blizzard have made some changes moving on from overage players and adding younger pieces most recently trading Brendan Aird to Springfield for Ryan Reid. Aird had gone into last weekend tied for the team lead with 15 points on the season but did not play in either game. Former Tauro Ryan Green (7g 9a) and Gabe Wahl (5g 11a) now lead the Blizzard with 16 points each.