Alex Eisen/MDN Minotauros forward Joseph Harguindeguy (8) controls the puck Saturday evening against the St. Cloud Blizzard.

Scoring chances went begging. The bounces weren’t friendly. Eventually, the clock struck zero, and the Minot Minotauros hadn’t done enough to secure the franchise’s 250th regular-season win.

It was a perplexing 3-2 home defeat Saturday evening for the Minotauros (18-10-4) against the bottom dwellers of the Central Division, the St. Cloud Blizzard (9-19-4), after having knocked them off 6-3 on Friday night at Maysa Arena.

“I think we were thinking that it was just going to happen, and we didn’t make it happen,” Minotauros head coach Marty Murray said. “We got what we deserved tonight… We need more urgency. Last night, we were dynamite, I thought. We controlled the puck. And tonight, it was a lot of forced plays and a lot of guys on their own. At this level, you can’t play one against five. That doesn’t work.”

Everything started smoothly for Minot with defenseman Will Crull converting a power-play opportunity 11 minutes into the contest for his first goal of the season.

The Minotauros’ 1-0 advantage lasted exactly 30 seconds. Zackery Diamont pounded in a rebound at the other end to knot the score at 1-1 going into the first intermission.

“I thought we had a ton of (scoring chances) in the first period, and then they gradually went down,” Murray said. “A lot of chances we didn’t capitalize on.”

Minot heavily outshot St. Cloud 49-26 in a game that only featured two penalties, both going against the Blizzard.

And yet, St. Cloud took control of the contest with a pair of goals separated by 25 seconds in the first half of the second period. Owen Belisle and Jack Suchy took advantage of some poor possession play from the Minotauros and riffled pucks passed goaltender Ben Garrity.

In a last-ditch effort, Garrity was pulled for an extra skater with 2:44 remaining in the third period with Minot still trailing 3-1.

Kyler Kleven managed to get one goal back with 19 seconds left. But, that’s as far as the improbable rally went.

“It’s frustrating, for sure,” Murray said. “The learning curve has to be over for our team. We are at game No. 32 — second half of the season — and, to me, there is no such thing as a rookie anymore. We know what it takes to win in this league.”

The Minotauros remain at Maysa Arena next weekend with a pair of home games on Friday and Saturday against the Minnesota Wilderness. Puck drop at 8:05 p.m. on both nights.

Alex Eisen covers Minot State athletics, the Minot Minotauros and high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @AEisen13.