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Weekend Preview @ Austin Bruins (10/9-10/10) Once again, the Tauros are hitting the road, this time to Austin, Minnesota to take on the Bruins at Riverside Arena for the first time this season. Minot enters the weekend on a six-game winning streak and tied for 1st in the Central Division at 6-1-0. Austin comes in just behind at 5-2-0 after splitting last weekend in Aberdeen. The Bruins picked up a pair of overtime wins against Watertown to start the season before going 2-1-0 at the NAHL Showcase with a loss to the reigning Robertson Cup champion Maryland Black Bears and wins against Amarillo and Wisconsin. A brief look at both the Tauros and Bruins tells a very contrasting story in the special teams department. For Austin, their power play (6.9%) and penalty kill (72.7%) percentages sit at 34th in the NAHL. The Tauros have the 5th best power play percentage (26.7%) in the NAHL entering the weekend, and while the penalty kill sits 20th in the league at 82.6%, it’s still a solid mark for a unit that has killed off some long and weighty penalties already this season. Austin is no stranger to the penalty box. They rank 10th in the NAHL for most total penalty minutes, and many of them come with copious amounts of physicality and fisticuffs. The Bruins are a physical bunch that are not afraid to shake things up, even after the whistle. Their issue is that when penalties are called, they’ve gone too far and been the ones with an extra man in the box. Conversely, the Tauros’ physicality has been before whistles and during play, and the extra penalties after the whistle have been handed to opposing teams due to the discipline they’ve shown so far. This will be an interesting series in the penalty regards. An Austin team that has been sent to the box a lot while also struggling to kill penalties paired with a Minot bunch that has been cashing in on power play opportunities could be a recipe for success this weekend. Interestingly, though, the trends are blatant to show that Austin rarely takes penalties on Fridays, but Saturdays are when they really start to march to the sin bin. Keep this in mind when tuning in this weekend. For the Tauros, the play between the pipes has been great with Lukas Hoglind and Ryan Bodnar in the early goings. For Austin, they’ve got a solid tandem as well led by Dilans Birkans who is 4-2-0 this season with a .906 save percentage. Big keys for the Tauros this weekend? Stay disciplined within the structure that’s already been successful, cash in on the power play opportunities that present themselves, and, ya know what? Win a fight, how about it? Road barn, chance to set the tone. No better place for the first Tauros scrap of the season. Puck drop on Friday, October 9th is at 7:05pm CT, and Saturday, October 10th is an hour earlier at 6:05pm CT. This weekend there will be no Road NATV or Facebook Live feed, but both games are still live on NAHL TV and Saturday’s game is the NAHL Free Game of the Week, meaning anyone can tune in to Tauros @ Bruins for no cost on NAHL TV.
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