by: Edward Nieman, minotauroshockey.com
Mason City, IA – The Minotauros traveled to Mason City Iowa for their first official road trip of the season to take on the North Iowa Bulls in a two-game weekend series. The Tauros entered the weekend riding a 4-2 recond coming on the heels of a split series against the Aberdeen Wings a week ago.
It didn’t take long for the Tauros to get going in Iowa as their first goal of the weekend came only 11 seconds into the first period of game one. Jack O’Hanisain notched his second goal of the season via a quick shot assisted off of Lehtinen’s won draw in the Bulls defensive zone.
After a quiet second period of play the Tauros caught fire scoring a flurry of three goals in the final period of play. Goals were credited to Dawson (3), O’Hanisain (3), and Lehtinen (2). All of which came within the first six-and-a-half minutes of the third period as the Tauros cruised to a 4-0 victory.
Tauro netminder James Norton kept a clean sheet in game one, saving a perfect 18 shots on 18 attempts from the Bulls. Norton’s clean sheet counted for his first shutout as a Tauro and the forty-second in franchise history.
Game two started in a similar fashion to game one with O’Hanisain staying hot scoring his third of the weekend with a backhanded shot 10:13 into the first period of play. That gave the Tauros the early 1-0 advantage.
The pace picked up in the second period as the Bulls broke through with their first goal of the weekend to answer the Tauros to even the score. The goal was credited to Ethan Lindahl with 16:38 remaining in the second frame.
In a physical and penalty-filled late second period, which saw a line brawl ensue, Joel Lehtinen broke the tie on a power play goal, being his third goal of the season. Lehtinen’s goal came from the top of the face-off circle via a Ketonen assist.
Late into the third period O’Hanisain’s weekend got even better as he found the back of the net for the fourth time in the series and second time in game two giving the Taruos the 3-1 lead.
Will Dawson added an empty netter to extend the Tauro lead to 4-1 in the closing minutes of the final period.
The lead would prove to be enough to lift the Tauros to their sixth win of the young season along with the sweep. O’Hanisain finished the series with a team-leading four goals, and Lehtinen with two of his own. Ketonen led the series in assists with four.
With the series sweep the Tauros move to 6-2 as they travel back to Minot.
Next up the Minotauros have a long week at home that starts with the Bismarck Bobcats visiting the Maysa Arena on Thursday night for Minot Hockey Boosters Night followed by a Friday/Saturday set with the St. Cloud Norsemen. Saturday’s game will be the annual Minotauros Booster Club’s Trunk-or-Treat Tailgate starting at 5:00. Tickets for all three games are available through the “Tickets” tab atop this page or by visiting tickets.minotauroshockey.com.