By Sean Williams, www.minotauroshockey.com
Austin, Minn. – It was a very successful opening weekend of the Robertson Cup Playoffs, as the Minot Minotauros out scored the Austin Bruins 12-2 and were able to take a 2-0 advantage in the Central Division Semifinals. The 12 goals scored by Minot were the most out of any team in the NAHL through their first two games of the postseason, and in a 9-1 win on Friday night, the team set a new franchise record for most goals in a playoff game.
The three-headed monster of Niklas Ketonen, Ian Spencer and Nicholas Sewecke all chipped in heavily to the offensive success over the weekend. The trio led the way with a four-point weekend on three goals and one assist each. In the historic win on Friday, Trevor Stachowaik, Cayden Casey and Ty James all found the back of the net as well.
With the scoring coming in bunches, a lot of assists followed with Weston Knox tallying three assists to lead the team over the weekend, followed by Jack O’Hanisain, Jordan Gibbs, Joel Lehtinen, Colby Woogk and Pavol Funtek with two assists each, and John Small, Colby Bear and Will Dawson added one assist each.
Utilizing his goaltending depth, head coach Cody Campbell split time between Brady James and Lukas Swedin last weekend and the plan worked out extremely well. James started on Friday night and made 20 saves on 21 shots. Swedin followed that up on Saturday by making 14 saves on 15 shots, as the pair allowed just two goals throughout the weekend.
Will Diamond and John Hirschfeld scored the two goals for Austin, while Jackson Rilei, Alex Laurenza, Ocean Wallace and Austin Salani all had an assist each. On Friday night, Vilgot Holm and Trent Wiemken both saw time in net for the Bruins, where Holm made 25 saves on 31 shots and Wiemken made 9 saves on 12 shots. Wiemken saw all the action on Saturday night, where he made 21 saves on 23 shots.
You couldn’t have asked for a much better start to the postseason for the Minotauros, who have a +10 goal differential after the first two games. The two goals allowed through two games is tied for second best in the league, and one of those goals they allowed came when the Bruins were on the power play. Still, the Tauros were able to find a ton of success on special teams, as they killed off 87.5% of their penalties last weekend, and scored four power-play goals and one short-handed goal.
After taking the first two games, the Tauros will now head to Austin this weekend, where they will need only one more win in order to move on and keep the playoff run going. Puck drop between the Tauros and Bruins on Friday at Riverside Arena is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. If the team needs to play again on Saturday, puck drop is scheduled for the same place and same time. If Austin wins both games the teams would return to Minot to play a decisive Game 5 on the Pepsi Rink at Maysa Arena on Monday. If needed, tickets for Game 5 would go on sale at the conclusion of Game 4.