By Andrew Lennox, minotauroshockey.com Minot, ND –
The Minot Minotauros recovered from a sloppy 8-1 loss Wednesday by beating Bismarck 5-2 in a sold-out Maysa Arena Friday in the Magic City. Minot leads the season series 4-2-0.
Hunter Longhi opened the scoring at 7:29 of the period to make it 1-0 in favor of Minot. For Longhi, it was his sixth goal of the season while David Nesburg picked up the assist.
Into the second period, Tauro’s defenseman Jan- Kasper Bergman scored on the power play at 6:16 to make it 2-0. Just over two minutes later Bismarck forward Patrick Johnson would make it 2-1. Later in the period, Tauros Trevor Stachowiak added a power play goal making the score 3-1 at the end of two.
The Bobcats Patrick Johnson would strike again on the power play just O:28 into the third period to cut the lead to 3-2. Bismarck would not get on the scoreboard again. The Bobcats pulled their goalie Hunter Garvey late in the game which resulted in the Tauros scoring two empty net goals from Justin Dauphinais and Chase LaPinta to make the final score 5-2 in favor of Minot.
Netminder Cam Milewski won his first game in the NAHL and as a Tauro after being called up just 24 hours ago from the Bozeman Ice Dogs of the NA3HL.
Wednesday the Minotauros had a tough loss to their Highway 83 rival 8-1 in Bismarck. The Bobcats scored four unanswered goals in the first ten minutes of the game.
Just 2:02 into the second period, Bismarck’s Adam Pietila scored his sixth of the season to make it 5-0. The Bobcats would add two more markers to make it 7-0. Finally 15:35 into the second frame, Weston Knox scored his second of the year with assists from David Nesburg and Hunter Longhi to make it 7-1 for Bismarck going into the second intermission.
Bismarck added one more goal in the third to make it 8-1 picking up the win over Minot. Dane Couture made 28 saves in the losing effort.
Next up for the Tauros is a pair of weekend in Minnesota with back to back trips to Austin and St. Cloud before returning to North Dakota for a home-and-home battle with the Bobcats. The Tauros next home game on December 16th against the Bismarck Bobcats will be the Tauros annual SCHEELS Teddy Bear Toss Game. Starting in December the Tauros will bring back the Virtual Teddy Bear Toss once again to help support Minot area Not For Profits stay tuned to Tauros socials and gotauros.com for more details.