Jeremy Pike for minotauroshockey.com, Aberdeen, SD – While Minotauros team captain Trevor Stachowiak likely only cared about the final result on Saturday night, setting the franchise record for most games played at 173 games is an incredible achievement. So it was only fitting that in his 173rd game in a Tauros jersey, Stax opened the scoring in the 2-1 win over the Aberdeen Wings.
With just under five minutes left in the first period, Stax unleashed a shot from the circle to Wings goaltender Croix Kochendorfer’s right as Cayden Casey cut through the slot and screened the goalie. Adam Mahler (5) and Colby Woogk (3) were credited with assists. It was Stax’s first goal of the season. That was the only scoring in the first period.
With just over five minutes left in the second, the Tauros amped up the pressure in the offensive zone. Jack O’Hanisain found Niklas Ketonen who wheeled through the slot and away from goal before finding a wide-open Joel Lehtinen behind him. Lehtinen ripped it home for his fifth goal of the season (and second of the weekend) to give the Tauros a 2-0 lead.
The third period brought some nail-biting tension to the visiting Tauros as the Wings were able to finally break through with the man advantage just over seven minutes into the period. With Woogk in the box, Isak Holmstrom was able to cut the lead in half with his fifth of the season.
However, the Tauros would stand strong through the rest of the third, thanks in big part to goaltender James Norton who finished the night with 17 saves on 18 shots. The Tauros were unable to get an insurance marker despite attempting a game-high 14 shots in the third period, but the defense and Norton were able to ensure the win. The weekend sweep of Aberdeen further solidified the Tauros’ second-place spot in the Central Division, only two points behind the Austin Bruins.
On Friday night, the Tauros defeated Aberdeen 4-2 behind Jack O’Hanisain’s two goals and the game-winner from Ian Spencer.
O’Hanisain opened the scoring 11:01 into the first by banking a shot in off the back of Wings goalie Adam Dybal with assists from Ketonen and Pavol Funtek.
It took the Wings all of 37 seconds to answer back as Leonid Bulgakov ripped a shot past goalie Brady James on the rush.
However, less than three minutes later, O’Hanisain would net his second goal of the period and his eighth of the season. Rylan Jockims put a shot on Dybal, and O’Hanisain pounced on the loose puck and flipped it into the open net. Woogk also picked up an assist on the goal.
There was no scoring in the second despite the Tauros putting 14 shots on Dybal. After two periods, the Tauros had a whopping 29-9 shot advantage.
However, when the puck dropped on the third period, the Wings found their legs and started putting pressure on the Tauros. It culminated less than eight minutes in when Bennett Koupal tied the game after a sustained sequence of pressure.
However, the tie was extremely short-lived. After the faceoff, Nick Sewecke swept the puck back to Will Dawson. Dawson picked his head up at his own blueline and lifted the puck to a charging Ian Spencer at the opposite blueline. The single Wings defenseman wiped out trying to chase Spencer which gave the Tauros forward a breakaway. He did not miss for his first goal of the season.
Then with just over a minute remaining and Dybal pulled for the extra attacker, Lehtinen flipped the puck from his own blueline into the back of the Wings’ net for the empty-net insurance goal.
Next up the Tauros host the Austin Bruins to kick off a run of three weekends at home in a row. Tickets for those and all Tauro home games are available through the “Tickets” tab atop this page or by visiting tickets.minotauroshockey.com.