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Edward Nieman, www.minotauroshockey.com (Photo Credit: Grace Sandy) It was late October the last time the Bismarck Bobcats made the trip to the Magic City to square off with the Tauros on the Pepsi Rink at Maysa Arena. At the time the Bobcats held a league-best undefeated record of 11-0 and a ten-point advantage over the Tauros in the divisional race. Flash-forward to this weekend, the Central Division has a new frontrunner in the standings. After two straight weekends on the road, the Tauros finally returned home to the state of North Dakota to take on in-state rival Bismarck Bobcats in a home-and-home series. Prior to the weekend, the Tauros trailed the Bobcats by three points in the standings, closing the gap of what once looked like an insurmountable pace set by Bismarck to commence the 2024-25 season. Minot’s surge in the standings came courtesy of a winning streak that reached the mark of the franchise’s longest following a sweep in Mason City last weekend. The streak stood at 11 games following those two wins, a streak that dates back to the first weekend of 2025. Friday night’s contest opened up with a scoreless first period as both teams had a handful of special teams opportunities resulting in Minot going 2/2 on the PK and 0/1 on the power-play. Through the first twenty minutes, the Bobcats outshot the Tauros 13-4 in a first period that featured a stop-and-go pace. It was Ian Spencer breaking the scoreless tie nearly ten minutes into the second period on a shot that beat Bobcats’ netminder Kai Weigel blocker-side after finding its way through traffic. The goal would come as Spencer’s 18th on the season with assists credited to Adam Maher and Billy Batten. Just eight seconds later the Tauros added another courtesy of Braeden Jockims. It was Chuck Owens feeding Jockims along the left wing setting up the Tauros’ second of the night on Jockims’ fourth goal as a Tauro in just 13 games played in the Cream & Cardinal. Bismarck would claw back before the end of the period as Tommy Cronin found nylon on a power-play goal that slid under Swedin’s left pad to make it a 2-1 game through 40 minutes of play. Through the first two periods of the weekend series, it was the Bobcats holding a commanding advantage in shots on goal at 29-16. The third period would bring more scoring in favor of the Tauros. The first goal of the period would come 10:09 into the action as Jesse Juhola fired one in from the slot, beating Weigel five-hole to restore the two-goal lead. The goal for Juhola marked his 19th of the year and his third in five games. The Tauros would add one more with under a second to play in the third period as John Small potted a short-handed goal on the empty net to ice the 4-1 win bringing the Tauros within just one point of the Bobcats in the divisional race. Swedin would earn himself the first star of the game, padding away 48 of 49 shots faced while picking up his 35th career win as a Tauro, marking the most in franchise history. Swedin’s record on the season would improve to 24-7 with the win. Following the Friday game in Minot, the series would shift down to the state’s capital on Saturday night as the Bobcats looked to improve on an already impressive 17-2 record on home ice at the VFW Sports Center. The Saturday game would start out in a similar fashion to the Friday night contest with a scoreless opening frame as both teams fired an even ten shots in on net. The scoring would pick up in the second period as Ian Spencer broke the scoreless tie for the second straight night on a setup from below the goal line from Jack O’Hanisain. Spencer was able to tuck it into the top right corner past Tomas Anderson to give Minot the 1-0 lead. The lead would hold through 40 minutes of play despite the Tauros getting outshot 10-5 in the middle period. The third period would feature back and forth action as a combined 18 shots were fired on net. The Tauros would add an empty-netter courtesy of Gavin Middendorf to make it a 2-0 game with just 38 seconds remaining to ice the victory which was good for the Tauros’ 13th win in a row. Lukas Swedin would pick up his second win of the weekend with a 30 save shutout performance on Saturday night which marked his sixth shutout of the season as his record improved to 25-7 on the season. With the win the Tauros overtook the Bobcats for first-place in the division with 16 games remaining on the regular season schedule. Following the weekend sweep the Tauros will hit the road next weekend to Watertown to take on the Shamrocks for the final time this season. As always, all Tauros game can be viewed on NATV with a live free audio broadcast available on the Tauros’ YouTube and Facebook pages. The Tauros will return home next on February 28th to take on the Aberdeen Wings. Tickets for that game and all Tauro home games can be purchased on the Minotauros online ticketing site. |
