St. Cloud, MN – The Minotauros hit the road to Minnesota for the first time since the second week of December to take on the St. Cloud Norsemen. The NAHL Central remains jam packed with the Tauros having fallen from second to fourth after their first pointless weekend in two months. The Norsemen meanwhile have jumped into second after sweeping the Bobcats last weekend.
The Norsemen have been charging up the standings of late with the Central’s best record over the last 10 games going 8-1-1. St. Cloud has outscored opponents 32-21 over that span. The Tauros meanwhile have gone 5-5-0 over their last five games and have both scored and allowed 25 goals in those contests.
The Tauros are 5-3-0 against the Norsemen this season, Chase LaPinta has led the Tauro offense against St. Cloud posting nine goals and four assists in the eight meetings followed by Hunter Longhi who has 10 helpers against St. Cloud. For the Norsemen Blake Perbix and Broten Sabo each have 10 points in the season series.
Starts will be key this weekend as the Tauros are 14-2-1 when leading after the first period while the Norsemen are 12-1-1. That trend has mostly held in the season series, in six of the eight meetings one of the teams has held a lead at the first intermission, in five of those the team that led won.
As always fans will be able to tune into the games on the Minotauros Network. The game can be watched on HockeyTV or fans can listen to free audio broadcasts on the Tauros Facebook page, Mixlr, gotauros.com, or in the Tauros Hockey App. The Farmers Union Pregame show will start at 6:45 p.m., 15 minutes before puck drop.