Instead, they found themselves having to scratch and claw their way to picking up just a single point following a sweep at the hands of the visiting North Iowa Bulls at Pepsi Rink at Maysa Arena. The Tauros scored first in both contests, but couldn’t hold on either time, falling 5-1 on Friday, Sept. 19, and 5-4 in a shootout loss on Saturday, Sept. 20. The shootout loss earned them one point in the standings.

“I thought we competed much harder tonight,” Minotauros coach Tyler Ebner said. “I thought we had lapses in our structure, which to me was the difference in the hockey game. But we fought our way back after a lapse of a five to 10 minute stretch and it just wasn’t good enough.”

After scoring three goals in the second period on Saturday, the Tauros went scoreless in the third, during the 5-minute 3-on-3 overtime session and went 0-for-2 during the shootout. Artem Prima hit the post on his shootout attempt and Philip Wiklund had his shot stopped by North Iowa goaltender Harry Byers. Ivan Bercik opened the shootout session with a goal and Vitaliy Korolyuk secured the two points for the Bulls two skaters later.

“The shootout we do every week and overtime we work in every once in a while on some Tuesdays for game day, but we work on it some, but it’s really early in the season,” Ebner said. “There’s other things we have to focus on.”

Mike Kraft/MDN North Iowa’s Ivan Bercik scores on his shootout attempt against Minot goaltender Devin Rustlie during an NAHL game at Pepsi Rink at Pepsi Rink at Maysa Arena on Saturday, Sept. 20. The Bulls would win the shootout, 2-0.

The Tauros (1-0-1; 1 point) wasted no time getting the bad taste out of their mouth from the night before. They tallied the first goal for the second straight game, but instead of waiting until the second period, Prima lit the lamp just 19 seconds into the contest. Prima corralled a cross-crease pass from Brady Zugec and beat Byers to give the Tauros an early lead.

Neither team found the back of the net the final 19-plus minutes of the opening period, but the offenses were far from done.

The Bulls and Tauros scored six total goals on Friday night. They netted seven in the second period alone.

Minot made the Bulls (2-0-0; 4 points) pay for their seats in the penalty box, as the Tauros scored all three of their goals In the period with the man advantage, with two coming off the stick of Marlen Edwards. But the first belonged to Lucca Ori with just a second remaining on a checking-from-behind infraction by Joe Coghlin, his second penalty of the night. Ori stuffed home a rebound in front of the net off an initial shot from Zugec.

The next two Tauros goals belonged to Edwards and both pulled his team even after the Bulls had grabbed a goal advantage. Edwards’ first came six minutes into the middle stanza with a shot from the faceoff circle that beat Byers far post, 14 seconds into a cross-checking penalty by Davis Higley. His second tied the game 4-4 just three minutes later toward the tail end of a slashing penalty to Brody Dietz. Edwards grabbed control of the puck with his back to the net, spun around and curled a shot past Byers.

Despite the three power-play goals on the night, Ebner said there is still work to be done on special teams.

“We’ve got a ways to go with that,” Ebner said. “It was much better. We had better puck movement. More guys were moving to the right areas. Obviously, it was much better than last night.”

The Bulls had quick responses. Trailing 2-0, North Iowa scored three unanswered in a span of six minutes to take a 3-2 lead. The first was just 14 seconds after Ori gave the Tauros a two-goal advantage. Ivan Bercik netted the first, followed by Fugi Suzuki and Denis Kuzmenkov.

“The shift after a goal is so important in terms of we have to have the right energy and mindset after a goal for or a goal against,” Ebner said. “That’s happened two games in a row now where we’ve gotten scored on pretty much right away after we’ve scored, so that has to be addressed.”

Carter Davis answered Edwards’ first goal in 21 seconds to reclaim a 4-3 lead for the Bulls.

Byers finished with 38 saves, including three in overtime. Minot goaltender Devin Rustlie finished with 42, having to make just one save to get the Tauros to the shootout session.

Friday’s season opener saw the Tauros again go in front first, with Dane Ramirez scoring 3:15 into the second period, but that was all the offense Minot had on the night. The rest of the game belonged to North Iowa.

Korolyuk and Malatino each netted a pair of goals and Bercik tacked on a power-play goal in the final minutes.

The Tauros held a slim 35-34 edge in shots, but the Bulls held a 16-10 advantage in the final period. Byers picked up his first of two wins over the weekend with a 34-save performance. Magnus Loponen suffered the loss in net for the Tauros, finishing with 29 saves.

The Tauros head to Blaine, Minn., for the NAHL Showcase beginning Wednesday, Sept. 24, where they will play three non-division games over four days. Minot battles Oklahoma on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m., followed by New Hampshire on Friday, Sept. 26, at 3 p.m., before closing out the showcase against Anchorage on Saturday, Sept. 27, at 2:30 p.m. All three contests are at the NSC Super Rink.