By Sean Williams, www.minotauroshockey.com
Minot, N.D. – Last weekend, the Minot Minotauros utilized late-game heroics that helped the team avoid being swept for the first time this season. Although the team has remained in first place in the Central Division for quite some time now, the rally couldn’t have come at a better time given the recent surge of their upcoming opponent this weekend. That opponent is their in-state rival in the Bismarck Bobcats, who enter the weekend winners of eight in a row with a record of 26-12-0 and 54 points on the season. Their play has trimmed the gap between them and the Tauros, with the Bobcats sitting in second place and the Tauros in first place with 30-10-1 and 61 points this year.
Over the course of their eight-game winning streak, the Bobcats swept the North Iowa Bulls twice and the Austin Bruins once. Additionally, they are averaging 3 goals per game and allowing a remarkable 0.62 goals per game, with three shutouts and five games where they allowed only one goal during the streak. Over their last eight games, the Minotauros have an even 4-4-0 record with an average of 3.5 goals per game and have allowed 2.75 goals per game. Two of those wins include shutouts of Austin and the Aberdeen Wings.
Top point getters for Bismarck this season have been Evan Hunter (35 points), Julian Beaumont (33 points), Tommy Cronin (30 points), Kade Kohanski (28 points), and Patrick Johnson and Mathieu Bourgault with 27 points each. Johnson and Beaumont have scored 14 goals each to lead the team, followed by Hunter’s 13 goals, Cronin’s 10 goals, and 9 goals from Tamas Toth. In net, Stephen Peck has played in 22 games with a goals against average (GAA) of 2.26 and a 91% save percentage. Klayton Knapp has been in the crease for 20 games as well, where he has posted a GAA of 2.34 and a 91% save percentage. Peck has two shutouts and Knapp has five to his name.
Leading the way in points for Minot is Joel Lehtinen with 44 points, followed by Jack O’Hanisain (43 points), Niklas Ketonen (37 points), Trevor Stachowiak (37 points), and Colby Woogk (27 points). O’Hanisain’s 22 goals leads the team, followed by Woogk, Ketonen, Lehtinen and Chad Muller with 12 goals each, and Will Dawson and Stachowiak with 10 goals apiece. Brady James has been the primary netminder for Minot, where he has a 2.25 GAA and a 90% save percentage with three shutouts in 23 games this year.
The last time these teams met at the end of December, the Minotauros pulled through in a tough task by sweeping the Bobcats in a three-game series. It was a timely sweep and helped the Tauros separate hemselves in the Central Division standings, and the team will hope to have similar results this time around with the Bobcats creeping up in the standings. On Friday night at 7:35 p.m., the Tauros and Bobcats will meet at the Maysa Arena. On Saturday at 7:15 p.m., the teams will head south of town and play at VFW Sports Center in Bismarck.