Mike Kraft/MDN The Minot Minotauros begin their 15th season with a new coach and a plethora of new players and talent, but the expectations remain the same.

Any season that doesn’t end with lifting up the Robertson Cup has a bit of a sting to it, even with the understanding that only one of 34 teams can come out on top each year.

But having to watch your bitter rival hoist the Robertson Cup at the end of the season and being powerless to stop it from happening is the equivalent of jumping into a pool of salt water with a slew of open wounds.

The Minot Minotauros could only watch as the Bismarck Bobcats won their second league championship in program history last season, defeating the Lone Star Brahmas at Fogerty Ice Arena in Blaine, Minn, in a postseason run where they won five potential elimination games.

“It motivates us a lot,” Tauros defenseman Ty James said. “It’s a thing we can’t look at as something scary. It’s just another challenge in the way and another team we have to beat. They’re just another team and nothing else to it.”

James is one of four returners and the only defenseman from last year’s team that played significant time with the Tauros. Forwards Braeden Jockims, Dane Ramirez and Davin Nichols are the others.

Minot also returns forward Mackley Morelli and defenseman Jax Warren, who briefly joined the team following their senior seasons in high school. Morelli helped guide Minot High to a third-place finish at the state tournament and was named the senior athlete of the year. He appeared in five games with the Tauros, scoring a goal. Warren signed a tender with Minot in January and also played in five games, registering an assist. He completed his senior season at Champlin Park High in Champlin, Minn., prior to joining the Minotauros.

“We lost a lot,” Minotauros head coach Tyler Ebner said. “There’s only really a handful of guys that are returning. There’s a lot of new guys and new faces in town, which I think is a good thing. With those new guys there’s a lot of experience even though they are a little bit younger, there’s still a lot of junior experience those guys have. They’ve played juniors. They understand what it takes to be successful during a junior season with how long the season is and the grind of the season. A lot of the guys have already fought through that process. And then there is always those first-year guys that are going through the process of figuring out what junior hockey is.”

Ebner was recently promoted to the ranks of head coach in the beginning of September following a restructuring within the organization that saw former head coach Cody Campbell shift solely to the role of general manager.

Despite the change at the top, it’s still business as usual for the Tauros.

“I don’t think it’s been any different than the last couple of years, just a slight change,” James said. “The message is the same, it’s just coming from someone else. I think it’s all good things coming out of it.”

James is the lone Tauro with multiple years with the team and is the leading returning points scorer from last season. He played in all 63 games last season, tallying 17 points on three goals and 14 assists. For his career, he has played in 117 games, registering 24 points on five goals and 19 assists.

Minot’s returners account for 58 points (18 goals, 40 assists) from last year while losing 545 points worth of production in the form of 191 goals and 354 assists. The Tauros lost its top nine scorers from a year ago, led by Ian Spencer (25g, 48a), Jack O’Hanisain (24g, 41a) and Jesse Juhola (20g, 44a).

The Tauros will also have fresh faces between the pipes, as they had to replace both Lukas Swedin and WIll Mizenko. The duo helped limit opposing offenses to 2.02 goals per game last season, pitching seven shutouts. Minot currently has three goaltenders on the roster in Devin Rustle, Magnus Loponen and Brian Cooke.

Rustle was recently acquired from the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders of the United States Hockey League. He played in six games with the Austin Bruins before moving up to the RoughRiders, appearing in 12 games.

Loponen comes to the Tauros by way of Finland, where he played with the Kiekko-Espoo U16 and U18 teams. He played in 63 games with the program, sporting a 31-17-0 record. Last season with the U18 team, he compiled a 2.46 goals against average and a .914 save percentage.

Cooke – a St. Louis product – played the last four years with the Blues AAA youth hockey program. Last year with the U16 team, Cooke went 17-10-0 with a .918 save percentage.

“With the amount of new guys, there’s still a process of figuring out what it is that we want to accomplish in terms of our process and our standard and guys are starting to figure that out,” Ebner said. “In terms of what it is that we look for in a season, for us, the past two years we’ve won 40 games. I don’t think the expectations are to drop, The standard is the standard here and then in terms of helping our guys develop to the point where schools are interested in them.”

Despite all the new faces, Minot isn’t worried about any on-ice chemistry issues, but did say it could take a little bit of time early in the season to develop.

“It could take one skate or a couple weeks but right now we’re just finding a group of guys that work together and it’s just going to take a little bit more time as the season goes on to know what guys are going to do in general and out on the ice,” James said. “But we’re pretty good off the ice on knowing each other and building trust within the team that we’re going to win.”

The Tauros finished third in the Central Division last season with 81 points (40-18-1-0), advancing to the playoffs for the 11th time in 14 years. Minot has only missed the postseason during its inaugural season and again in 2021-22 (the 2019-20 postseason was canceled due to COVID-19).

Minot’s season ended in heartbreak after going up 2-0 in the divisional semifinals with a pair of road wins against the Austin Bruins. But the Bruins won both elimination games at Maysa Arena, including a double-overtime victory in Game 4 before returning to Austin for Game 5 and ending Minot’s season with a convincing 5-1 win.

The eight-team Central Division won’t be any less competitive than it has been in recent memory. Watertown and Minnesota completed their inaugural seasons and only expect to be more competitive in Year 2. Five of the eight teams have all won both regular season divisional titles as well as postseason divisional titles in their history. The Bobcats lead both categories with five regular season titles and seven postseason divisional titles. The Tauros have two of both.

“Every year the Central Division basically comes down to that last weekend to see who’s in the playoffs and who’s not,” Ebner said. “Same thing last year. St. Cloud and Aberdeen were fighting for a playoff spot. It’s been that way pretty much every year in the Central Division. There’s a ton of parity and everyone has a chance and are good enough to make the playoffs. To me that’s a good thing because we have to raise our level and our standard every week so we like the results come April.”

The Tauros will get their first look at the Central Division talent when they open the regular season against the North Iowa Bulls on Friday, Sept. 19, at Pepsi Rink at Maysa Arena. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:35 p.m.

“We’re really pumped to get on the ice and get in front of all the fans and get a real game going and a real battle for two points in the division,” James said. “We want to prove a point this weekend that the Tauros are back and we’re ready to go.”