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Minot, ND – Home Opening Weekend at Maysa Arena was a flying success for the Minot Minotauros. They swept the weekend with a pair of wins over the St. Cloud Norsemen as the full divisional slate of the 2026-27 season began. Friday Game Recap Special teams were the highlight of the weekend for the Tauros, and seven minutes into the 1st period, Ivan Sidorov notched a power play goal to give the Tauros the first lead in the return to Minot. Back-to-back penalties on the Tauros, including a game misconduct to Lucca Ori, had Minot shorthanded for about seven consecutive minutes, but the penalty kill held up and maintained the 1-0 lead after the opening frame. In the 2nd period Briggs Knott found the back of the net for another power play goal, his team-leading fourth goal of the season, to make it 2-0. At the end of the period, Minot was awarded a power play, and just 40 seconds into the 3rd period, Mario Fate scored a third power play goal to put Minot ahead 3-0. St. Cloud got on the board on the power play just 80 seconds later to give the Norsemen some life. Midway through the 3rd, the Norsemen pulled within a goal. With the score 3-2 Minot, the Norsemen took a penalty with 6:25 left in regulation. The Tauros were unable to cash in on the man-advantage, but the momentum from the power play carried into the final minutes of the game. A Minotauros icing with 2:35 left in regulation gave St. Cloud an opportunity to pull their goalie, but they decided to keep him in his crease. The Tauros won the ensuing faceoff and possessed the puck for the remainder of the game. All the while the Norsemen had to keep their goalie between the pipes due to the relentless offensive zone pressure from the Tauros. With eight seconds left, Minot forced an offensive zone draw, killed off the final ticks, and won the game 3-2 with St. Cloud failing to even pull their goaltender in the final two minutes and 35 seconds. Tauros goaltender Lukas Hoglind stopped 25 of 27 shots (.926 SV%). Briggs Knott factored into all three Tauros goals in the game as Minot went 3-for-6 on the power play.
Saturday Game Recap The Tauros jumped out to an early lead on Saturday not even three minutes into the game. Shawn Swavely got The Maysa jumping with his second goal of the season on a tip from a blue-line shot from Jacob Faith. Halfway through the 1st, the Tauros found themselves shorthanded, but they created a rush up ice with defenseman Thomas Lahtinen, who was hooked from behind on a breakaway. The referees awarded Lahtinen a penalty shot, which was the first he’d ever taken. Despite only having 14 goals in 210 games played in Finland since 2020, Lahtinen looked every bit of a goal-scorer on his penalty shot. He wound up in the high slot, faked a clapper, got the goalie into his butterfly, deked right on his backhand, brought it back to his forehand and slid it along the ice for the goal. The 2-0 Tauros lead held through the 2nd period with neither side finding the back of the net. In the 3rd, Lahtinen got back to his goal-scoring ways on the power play with a long shot from the blue line that deflected off a Norseman’s skate and into the net for his second goal of the game. Down 3-0, St. Cloud pulled their goalie with 4:30 on the clock. After a myriad of icing calls and sustained offensive zone time from the Norsemen, Tauros captain Dane Ramirez got outlet passes from Mackley Morelli and Michael Solominsky and skated in the empty netter with 30 second left, icing the game and securing a 4-0 win and a weekend sweep of the St. Cloud Norsemen. The shutout victory went to 18-year-old netminder Ryan Bodnar in just his second NAHL start. He stopped all 28 St. Cloud shots and finished as the First Star of the game. The Tauros are now winners of six straight and sit tied atop the Central Division with Bismarck at 6-1-0.
Charging Ahead The Minotauros will hit the road once again this weekend to take on the Austin Bruins (5-2-0). Friday, October 9th puck drop is at 7:05pm CT and Saturday’s puck drop is an hour earlier at 6:05pm CT. You can tune in to the action on NAHL TV or on the Minot Minotauros Facebook Live Audio Feed. The Tauros return home to The Maysa on October 16th and 17th at 7:35pm to take on the St. Cloud Norsemen once again. Tickets are available on the Tauros Hockey Mobile App or at tickets.minotauroshockey.com.
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