Aberdeen, SD – The Minotauros head to Aberdeen to take on the rival Wings to open the final full month of the regular season. The Central remains as competitive as ever with just five points separating second place Aberdeen and sixth place Bismarck. The Tauros currently sit in fourth with 48 points three points behind the Wings, meaning a strong showing this weekend could jump the Tauros into second.
The Tauros are just 3-5-0 against the Wings this season after being swept in the most recent meeting in Minot just three weeks ago. The teams had split the first three weekend sets between the clubs with the home team winning each Friday and the road team rebounding before getting on the bus on Saturday.
Hunter Longhi leads the Tauros against Aberdeen (and overall) with nine points in the eight previous contests on two goals and seven assists. The Wings meanwhile are led by Alexander Gullichsen who on four goals and four assists has eight points against the Tauros.
In goal the Wings have leaned heavily on Cole Moore especially against the Tauros against whom he is 5-1-1 with a .947 SV% and 1.85 GAA. For the Tauros Lawton Zacher has a 3-3-0 against the Wings with a 1.87 GAA and .938 SV%.
While the Tauros and Wings faceoff in Aberdeen scoreboard watching will become the norm for everyone in the Central. The third place St. Cloud Norsemen will head to fifth place North Iowa while last place Bismarck will host first place Austin.
After this weekend the Tauros will return to the Pepsi Rink at Maysa Arena for two consecutive weekends starting with the North Iowa Bulls on March 10th and 11th followed by the Norsemen on March 17th and 18th.
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 7:00 p.m., 15 minutes before puck drop.