by: Sean Williams, minotauroshockey.com
Minot, N.D. – Following a sweep of the Austin Bruins, the Minot Minotauros have advanced in the Robertson Cup Playoffs and will now play in the Central Division Finals in another best-of-five series. In the opening round, the Minotauros exploded for 19 goals in three games which at the conclusion of the series, led the NAHL. In an overall, solid team performance, the Tauros only allowed three goals in the series as they took control early and never looked back.
On special teams, the Tauros had another excellent performance on both the penalty kill and the power play. With a penalty-kill percentage of 88.89 percent through three postseason games, the Tauros allowed a minuscule one goal on the penalty kill. On the man advantage, the Tauros cashed in with six power-play goals and put together a power-play conversion of 33.33%.
Niklas Ketonen (three goals, two assists) and Joel Lehtinen (two goals, three assists) led the way for Minot in the Central Division Semifinals with five points each.
Other leading scorers included Jack O’Hanisain (one goal, three assists); Nicholas Sewecke (three goals one assist) and Ian Spencer (three goals, one assist) with four points each; and Cayden Casey (one goal, two assists); Weston Knox (three assists); Colby Woogk (three assists); Will Dawson (three assists); Jordan Gibbs (three assists) and Pavol Funtek (three assists) with three points apiece.
Meeting Minot on the other end of the ice is the Bismarck Bobcats, as these two in-state rivals will meet for the Central Cup for the first time ever. To get to this point, the Bobcats went the full five games with the Aberdeen Wings and walked away victoriously in a win or go home game five on Monday.
Through five games, the Bobcats have scored 21 goals and allowed only 10. They have seen success on special teams as well, where they check in with six power-play goals and a power-play conversion of 35.29%, and a penalty-kill percentage of 91.67 percent with having only allowed one goal on the penalty kill thus far.
Tommy Cronin is leading this Bobcats with seven points (three goals, four assists) in the playoffs, with Kade Kohanski’s six points (two goals, four assists) not far behind.
Bismarck’s depth has been on display during the postseason, where they have also gotten four points each from Jake Peterson (one goal, three assists); Evan Hunter (one goal, three assists); Matthew Rafalski (two goals, two assists); Tamas Toth (three goals, one assist); Kai Dunits (one goal, three assists); Mathieu Bourgault (four goals); and Alexandr Kim (one goal, three assists).
It will be a thrilling series between these two, which is set to begin this weekend. Games one and two will take place on Friday and Saturday night at the Maysa Arena. Puck drop is set for 7:35 p.m. on both nights. Tickets for the games in Minot can be purchased through the “Tickets” tab atop this page or by visiting the Minotauros Ticketing Site; tickets for games in Bismarck will be available soon on the Bobcats Ticketing Site.