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Edward Nieman, www.minotauroshockey.com (Photo Cred: Lauren Hill) Friday night brought the Minotauros back down to Watertown, South Dakota for the second time in just four weekends as Minot looked to stay undefeated against the Shamrocks this season. The Tauros entered the weekend coming off a weekend sweep against Bismarck that propelled Minot into first-place in the Central Division. The two wins last weekend extended the Tauros’ win streak to a league-best 13 games. Friday night commenced with Jack O’Hanisain ripping one by Shamrocks’ netminder Mason Gudridge on a feed from below the goal-line courtesy of Jesse Juhola. The goal for O’Hanisain marked his 17th on the season as the Tauros led 1-0 just over five minutes into the opening period. Watertown would respond quickly as it was Joseph Rice cashing in on the Shamrocks’ first extra-man advantage of the game as he beat Lukas Swedin blocker-side on a centering pass from Carter Sproule to even things up, 1-1. The Tauros would restore the lead just over three minutes later on a goal that marked Noah Gibbs’ first in the Cream & Cardinal as he fired one in from the slot making it 2-1. The goal for Gibbs was his sixth on the year and first with the Tauros since being acquired by Minot from Janesville. The score would hold as both teams reached the first intermission knotted up 1-1. Through the first 20 minutes, the Tauros outshot the Shamrocks 14-7. The second period would open up with Watertown finding nylon on a goal coming by way of Cam Markham for his third of the season against the Tauros to tie things back up just under three minutes into the middle stanza. The Shamrocks would get their first lead of the weekend nearly eight minutes later as Spencer Sasenbury netted his 15th goal of the season on assists from Travis Lefere and Brandt Dubey to make it 3-2. Watertown would add one more before the period’s end, this time off the stick of Antons Macijevskis with just over a minute left in the second period. The second period would conclude with the Shamrocks holding a 4-2 lead over the Tauros despite getting outshot 21-15 through 40 minutes of play inside the Prairie Lakes Ice Area. The final period wouldn’t see any scoring until the final moments where Watertown would take advantage of the empty net to ice a 5-2 victory marking their first win over the Tauros in franchise history. The win would also snap the Tauros’ franchise-best 13-game win streak as it marked only their tenth loss of the year. Despite the Friday night loss, the Tauros would respond in the Saturday night contest to close out the season series against Watertown. The Saturday win would be Minot’s seventh of the season against the Shamrocks. Billy Batten would be the one to open the scoring for the Tauros on Saturday night with a short-handed goal just over eight minutes into the action to grab Minot the first-period lead. The goal would mark the Tauros’ seventh shorthanded goal of the season. Much like the previous night, the Shamrocks would respond with a first-period goal of their own. The first Shamrock goal of the night would come from Cam Markham on his second of the weekend and 16th of the season to pull Watertown even with Minot with 9:40 to play in the first period. The Tauros would restore the lead on the second short-handed goal of the period this time from John Small as he fired one past Gudridge glove-side off a feed from Ian Spencer to make it 2-1 in favor of the Tauros. That score would hold as the Saturday night contest arrived at the first intermission with the Tauros leading, 2-1. Along with the lead, the Tauros also outshot the Shamrocks 11-9 in the opening frame while scoring on both of their short-handed shifts. The second period would bring more scoring for both teams as the Tauros opened things up with a goal coming just over four minutes into the period. The goal would come as Batten’s second of the night as he tucked home a rebounded shot in front of the Shamrocks’ net past Gudridge to pull the Tauros ahead, 3-1. The Shamrocks would respond with two goals of their own to close out the period both coming courtesy of Miami (OH) commit Travis Lefere to tie things up heading to the final period of regulation. Entering the third period on Saturday night, the Tauros were 4-3 on the season in games tied heading into the final period of regulation. Just over the halfway mark in the third period, Tauros’ forward Dane Ramirez notched his first goal in the Cream & Cardinal as he ripped one past Gudridge to swing the game 4-3 in favor of the Tauros. The assists on the goal came from Davin Nichols and Jack Edwards as the Tauros regained the lead. The Shamrocks would tie the game up with just 9.6 seconds remaining in regulation as Lefere netted his third goal of the night sending hats flying down onto the ice which would be enough to send to game into OT. The overtime frame would prove to be fruitless for both teams as neither squad was able to find the scoring column. Both teams would fire an even two shots on net in the overtime period as the game would eventually be pushed to a shootout. Jesse Juhola would net a shootout goal that would wind up being the game-winner while Will Mizenko sealed the win on a save that denied Lefere a shootout-tying goal in the sudden death round. The Tauros shootout record for the year improved to 2-0 with the win on Saturday. Mizenko would finish the game saving 25 of 29 shots faced as his record moves to 9-2-1 on the season. Following the weekend split in Watertown, the Tauros record stands at 34-10-1 as they return home for games against the Aberdeen Wings next weekend. As always, all Tauros’ games can be viewed live on NATV with a free live audio stream available on the Tauros’ YouTube and Facebook pages. Tickets for next weekend and all Tauros’ home games can be purchased on the Tauros online ticketing site.
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