Kari Gibb/MDN Minot’s Cayden Casey flips the puck into the net from a pass sent by Weston Knox (44) in the first period of the second game against Bismarck in the NAHL Central Division Finals.

The Bismarck Bobcats made the trip to Minot to face the Minot Minotauros in the best of five NAHL Central Division Finals. The most recent trip made by the Bobcats to the Maysa Arena was a 5-2 win over the Minotauros in the last game of the 2023-2024 regular season. Bismarck had won the last two games they played against Minot. History would not repeat itself as Minot won both games, 5-2 on Friday, May 3, and 6-2 on Saturday, May 4 to take a 2-0 lead in the series.

Minot 5, Bismarck 2

In the first game, the two teams worked out their nerves and felt each other out for the chance to establish the tempo to come. With no penalties for either team in the first period, the Minotauros got uncorked with the first score when Nicholas Sewecke and Weston Knox fed the puck to John Emmons who scored with 3:45 left to play in the initial period.

Bismarck answered in the second period when Matthew Rafalski and Evan Hunter fed Tommy Cronin the puck for the first goal of the second period. The goal came just eight seconds after Trevor Stachowiak was locked in the penalty box on a tripping call. He was the third Minotauros skater to spend time in the penalty box up to that point.

With the game tied, John Small gave Minot the lead again with 7:07 left in the second period. Small collected the puck from Colby Bear and Ian Spencer enroute to the score. Four minutes and nine seconds later, with less than five seconds in the period, Jack O’Hanisain collected the puck from Sewecke and Colby Woodk and gave Minot the 3-1 lead going into the final period of play.

Bismarck jumped back in the scoring column when Julian Beaumont scored with assists by Alexandr Kim and Patrick Johnson, narrowing the Minot lead to 3-2 in the game.

Nearly two and a half minutes later, Adam Mahler and Knox fed the puck to Small for his second goal of the night, making the Minotauros lead 4-2 in the game. With just under ten seconds to play, O’Hanisain again scored with assists from Finns, Joel Lehtinen and Niklas Ketonen for the final score in the 5-2 win.

Brady James spent the entire game in the net for Minot while Bismarck had Stephen Peck for the bulk of the game with Stephen Peck in at the end of period three. Bismarck had 26 shots on goal with four more in the third period than Minot, who had 28 shots at the net. The Bobcats were penalized three times for six minutes while the Minotauros heard the whistle six times for 12 minutes in game one.

“We keep the focus on ourselves,” said Minotauros head coach Cody Campbell of the tempo and energy shift. “When we do that, we build momentum.”

Minot 6, Bismarck 2

The Minotauros attacked the second game with high energy and tenacity on the skates. With 11:13 in the first period, Stachowiak and Will Dawson fed the puck to Cayden Casey for the opening goal of the game. Sewecke added his own goal with 4:07 left in the opening period. Stachowiak and Emmons earned the assists.

With just 32 seconds left in the first period, Lukas Swedin and Knox fed the puck to Casey for his second score of the period and the 3-0 lead going into the break. The Bobcats had two penalties in the first period, but solid play by the Bismarck defense and goalie Klayton Knapp kept the Minotauros from scoring on the power plays.

The same happened for Minot in the second period power play moments, as the Minotauros had two penalties and kept the Bobcats from scoring while short handed with stingy defense and Swedin in the net for Minot.

Bismarck got into the scoring column when Ian Engel and Chase Beacom fed Kyle Doll the puck for the score with 9:19 left in period two.

With 3:10 left on the clock, Sewecke scored on assists from Woogk and Pavol Funtek while Ketonen added another score with 1:32 left in the second period. Minotauros skaters O’Hanisain and Jordan Gibbs had the assists on the score and Minot took the 5-1 lead into the final period.

The third period started where the second period left off, with Minot putting the puck into the net when Dawson and Casey fed the puck to Sewecke for his third goal of the game- prompting a deluge of hats from the crowd raining down onto the ice with 16:05 left to play in the game.

With the Minotauros leading 6-1, the frustration of the moment began to find its way into the play by the Bobcats, in particular Bismarck’s Tamas Toth who hit two Minotauros from behind in the same skating sequence and was called for the second of those with cross-checking just over half way through the third period.

“We have a mature team,” said Campbell. “We have dealt with it [aggression] before and we just focus and go to work.”

Bismarck added a score in the end with 6:01 left to play when Trent Anfinson found the net. Bobcats Jakub Kopecky and Luke Roelofs were credited with the assists. Bismarck outshot Minot in the third period 10-4 while the Minotauros had the edge in the game overall 33-25 in the win.

Lukas Swedin played goalie for the Minotauros all periods while Knapp was at the net for the first and second periods and Stephen Peck was in goal for the third period for the Bobcats. Minot had three penalties that resulted in four minutes of box time while the Bobcats had five for ten minutes.

WIth five games played between the Austin and Bismarck playoff series, Sewecke has six goals and four assists for 10 points while O’Hanisain has three goals and four assists for seven points. Ketonen joins him at seven points with four goals and three assists.

Minotauros skaters Casey, Knox, Spencer and Lehtinen each have six points in the playoffs.

“Our focus has not changed,” said Campbell. “We will continue to work on our game and take it one game at a time.”

Minot will make the trip to Bismarck for game three in the series on Friday, May 10, where the puck will drop at 7:15 p.m. at the VFW Sports Center.