Minot, N.D. – The time has come. The regular season is over and the 2024 Robertson Cup Playoffs have arrived. After putting together a stellar regular season that saw the Minot Minotauros have an overall record of 44-14-1 and 90 points, they enter the postseason as the No. 1-seeded team in the Central Division. Their opponent in the Central Division Semifinal round is the No. 4-seeded Austin Bruins, who finished the regular season with a record of 31-25-3 points and 66 points.
It will be a best-of-five series between the Tauros and the Bruins, where the Tauros have the right to host up to three games and the Bruins will host two games. From there, the winner of this series will take on the winner of the series between the Bismarck Bobcats and the Aberdeen Wings in what will be the Central Division Finals and another best-of-five series under the same scheduling regulations based on seeding.
During the regular season, Minot was dominant against Austin this year, where they posted a 9-3-0 record with three weekend sweeps. In those 12 games, the Tauros averaged 3.41 goals per game and allowed just 1.66 goals per game to the Bruins. In the full 60-game regular season, the Tauros scored 208 goals and allowed just 125, while the Bruins scored 161 goals and allowed 163. The Tauros will look to avenge last year’s Division Semifinals loss to the Bruins, as well as rewrite some deeper history with the Bruins having beat the Tauros five times in the postseason and the Tauros taking one series back in 2017-18 during their run to the Robertson Cup Championship Game.
Leading the way for Minot this year was Jack O’Hanisain with 61 points (29 goals, 32 assists), followed by Joel Lehtinen with 51 points (16 goals, 35 assists); Niklas Ketonen with 48 points (14 goals, 34 assists); Trevor Stachowiak with 46 points (14 goals, 32 assists); Colby Woogk with 39 points (18 goals, 21 assists); Will Dawson with 35 points (13 goals, 22 assists); and Cayden Casey with 34 points (12 goals, 22 assists). In net, Brady James has put together a very successful season with a 91.6% save percentage and a goals against average (GAA) of 2.11 in 32 games. Lukas Swedin has been impressive as well, posting a GAA of 1.72 and a 92.9% save percentage in 16 games.
The Bruins have been led by Austin Salani, who had 70 points (32 goals, 38 assists) during the regular season, followed by Dylan Cook with 53 points (15 goals, 38 assists); Ocean Wallace with 44 points (21 goals, 23 assists); Alex Laurenza with 42 points (15 goals, 27 assists); and Gustav Noren with 35 points (13 goals, 22 assists). In net, Trent Wiemken handled most of the load with 39 games played. In those games, Wiemken posted a GAA of 2.16 and a 91.6% save percentage.
On Friday, the postseason festivities will begin at the Pepsi Rink with puck drop scheduled for 7:35 p.m. between the Tauros and Bruins. On Saturday, they will play at the same place and same time as the Tauros look to get off to a strong start to the postseason in front of the home crowd. Tickets for Games 1 and 2 are available now through the “Tickets” tab atop this page, by visiting tickets.minotauroshockey.com, or by coming to the Maysa Arena Box Office which will be open until 6:30 Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week.