By: Ken Oda, minotauroshockey.com
Minot, ND – Coming off of a sweep of the Aberdeen Wings the Minotauros are riding a four game winning streak into tonight’s match-up with the division’s other South Dakota team, the Brookings Blizzard. It was a 1-0 Tauros’ victory over Brookings on January 18th, that started the win streak and made the Tauros 4-1-0 against the Blizzard. Now with three games in a row with Brookings the Tauros look to solidify their hold on fourth place and gain ground on third place Aberdeen.
The Tauros broke out of their offensive slump with four goals in Saturday night’s win in Aberdeen. Jake McCann scored his league leading 10th goal of the season in the win; Jake Howie (5th), Scott Dornbrock (4th), and Jon Lizotte (6th), netted the other three markers for the Tauros. The Tauros may have a new defenseman who is familiar with the Blizzard in the line-up tonight after acquiring Jordan Stejskal from the Minnesota Magicians; Stejskal spent the 2012/13 season with Brookings. At 6’2” 205 lbs. Stejskal adds size to the Tauros blue line that already averages 6’.5” and 193 lbs.
Brookings comes in on a four game losing streak and wins in just two of their last 10 going 2-7-1 over that span. Conor Andrle has lead the Blizzard against the Tauros with two goals and two assists in the five meetings. Evan Hesse has lead them in scoring overall with 12 goals and 19 helpers for 31 points on the season. In net Connor Girard has started most of the games since being acquired and has posted a 5-7-1 record to go with a .924 SV% and 2.63 GAA, including the 1-0 loss to the Tauros two weeks ago.
Top Prospects: This morning the Minotauros had four players named to the NAHL Top Prospects Tournament: Jake McCann, Scott Dornbrock, and Jon Lizotte will represent the Central Division; while Michael Bigelbach will play for the 18U Selects. Check back to minotauroshockey.com for more on the Tauros All-Stars.
Tickets: Tickets for tonight’s game against Brookings are still available by clicking the “tickets” tab atop this page. It’s Youth Hockey Night at the Maysa, if youth hockey players wear their youth team jersey to tonight’s game they will get in for $3.00 at the door!