Aberdeen, SD – The Minotauros and Wings entered the weekend tied for second place in the Central Division and after 120 minutes of hockey remain deadlocked in second place. As had been the case the first two weekend sets in the season series the home team won on Friday and the visitors salvaged a sweep the following night. The weekend split sets up another important weekend next weekend as the Wings come to Minot for the final time this season.
Friday night the Tauros appeared to open the scoring in the middle of the first when on a net-mouth scramble the puck popped in behind Cole Moore but the referee ruled that he had already blown the whistle. The Wings would eventually take the lead with 1:06 to play in the first when Landon Parker had a puck deflect off of the end wall and then his chest and into the net.
The Wings 1-0 lead would hold until four seconds left in the second when Dylan Wegner scored on the rush. On the ensuing faceoff Chase LaPinta went streaking up the right wing and fed a pass across the goal to Hunter Longhi that appeared to go in before the horn but was ruled no goal as time had expired.
The Tauros would push hard in the third outshooting the Wings 10-7 but Parker would add his second of the game into the Tauros empty net with just one second left on the clock for a 3-0 Wings win. Noah Rupprecht made 29 saves in the tough luck loss for the Tauros.
The Tauros fell in an early hole on Saturday when just 1:16 into the game Michael Casey picked up his first goal as a Wing to make it 1-0 Aberdeen. The Tauros pushed back outshooting the Wing 17-13 after the goal but could not solve Moore and draw even.
The second period saw more of the same with the Tauros outshooting the Wings 12-8, only this time they were finally able to break through. Jack O’Hanisain picked up his fifth of the season 10:10 into the middle frame on a quick shot from the right circle off of a feed from Weston Knox.
The Tauros were 7-2-0 went entering the third period tied this season and that trend continued for the visitors. With the Tauros on the power play Joe Blackley fired a puck from the blue line the fooled Moore to give the Tauros a 2-1 lead 7:44 into the third. From there Lawton Zacher took care of business stopping all 11 Wings shots to preserve the 2-1 win.
Next up the Tauros return to the Pepsi Rink at Maysa Arena to host the Wings on Friday and Saturday nights. The games are two of the Tauros three home contests for the month of February. Tickets are available through the “Ticketes” tab atop this page or by visiting tickets.minotauroshockey.com.