by: Andrew Lennox, gotauros.com
Austin, MN – The Minotauros headed to Austin, Minnesota, to take on the Bruins for the first time this season. Minot entered the weekend with two consecutive wins after sweeping the St. Cloud Norsemen one week ago.
Friday, the Tauros kicked off scoring early in the first period when Nicholas Sewecke capitalized on a Bruins defenseman turnover that led to a breakaway and the forward going bar down on Austin netminder Trent Wiemken.
Minot would strike again at 14:25 in the first frame to make it 2-0 as John Emmons jammed in a rebound on the doorstep off a shot from Co-Captain Trevor Stachowiak.
The Tauros would add to their lead in the second period when Niklas Ketonen netted his fourth goal of the season with a shot from the top of the circles off a beautiful feed from Joel Lehtinen to make it 3-0. Forward Gustav Noren would get the Bruins on the board late in the period.
Minot carried a 3-1 lead for most of the third period until Sewecke, with Stachowiak in the penalty box and Austin’s goalie Wiemken pulled, scored a shorthanded empty-net goal with 2:19 remaining in regulation. The Bruins would score two more goals in a span of 32 seconds but eventually ran out of time, allowing Minot to pick up the 4-3 victory.
Saturday was a special teams frenzy, with both clubs combining for 13 power play opportunities. However, only one power-play goal was scored in the contest.
The first period ended scoreless, but at 9:33 of the second, Austin’s Will Diamond scored on the power play to break a scoreless tie. Into the third frame, Minot was granted two power-play chances. Unfortunately, they were unable to capitalize and the Bruin’s Parker Anderson would eventually score an empty net goal to make it 2-0 in favor of Austin to close out the weekend.
Next up, the Tauros head to Aberdeen to take on the Wings before returning to the Pepsi Rink at Maysa Arena for three weekends in a row starting October 10th. Tickets for those and all Tauro home games are available through the “Tickets” tab atop this page or by visiting tickets.minotauroshockey.com.