Mike Kraft/MDN Minot United Ayla Jackson (13) and Century’s Morgan Rieger (19) battle for the puck during the third period at Maysa Arena on Thursday, Dec. 11.

Minot United and Bismarck Century girls hockey are used to playing close games throughout the history of their rivalry on the ice.

Last season, all three contests were decided by one goal, with the two regular season meetings both needing overtime to decide a winner and both ending in favor of the Patriots. Minot United won the one-goal affair with the most stakes attached to it, winning their meeting in the state quarterfinal.

Tuesday’s matchup could not have been more one-sided, as the Patriots clearly hadn’t forgotten that it was Minot United that ended their season prematurely a year ago. Yet it was a Century skater who wasn’t on the roster last year that led the revenge tour in the Patriots’ 6-0 victory over Minot United on Thursday, Dec. 11, at Maysa Arena.

“Any win’s a good win,” Century coach Tim Meyer said. “We’re proud of the effort and that’s the most important thing at this time of year. We focus on the things that we can control. Right now, we’re playing a hard game, we’re playing a tough game and we really kind of have a defensive-minded focus, but when we get goals it’s just that cherry on top.”

Freshman forward Elliana Mattson put together a four-point night with two goals and two assists for her fourth consecutive multi-goal game. Mattson now leads the league in both points (14) and goals (8) this season.

It looked as if the one silver lining for Minot United (1-2-1-0 overall, 0-2-1-0 state) would be that they held the freshman forward without a goal for the first time since Century’s season-opening shutout loss to Notre Dame Academy, but Mattson found the back of the net twice in a span of 1:16 late in the third period to keep her streak alive.

“Going into the game with simple plays and getting shots on net right out of the gate, not trying to be too fancy,” Mattson said. “Our coach implements that into our head to get shots and it sets us up for success.”

Her first came with five minutes remaining and the Patriots ahead 4-0. A Minot United turnover in its own defensive zone led to the puck ending up on Mattson’s stick. She skated to the near-side faceoff dot and fired a shot over the glove-side shoulder of Minot United goaltender Faith Seekings. Just over a minute later, she added her second, collecting a loose puck in front of the net, spinning around and seemingly firing blindly on net that found the meshing for the goal.

Mattson is far from the only offensive weapon on Century’s roster and its top-three scorers all showed up on the stat sheet on Thursday. Macie Vig and Morgan Rieger also had multi-point nights. Rieger had a pair of goals and Vig added a goal and two assists. Vig is second in the state in scoring with 13 points on six goals and a league-best seven assists, while Rieger is tied for fourth in the state in scoring with nine points on four goals and five assists. The trio accounted for nine of the team’s 14 points against Minot United.

“Century is a really good team,” Minot United co-head coach MaKayla Neuhalfen said. “They will capitalize anytime you make a mistake and it showed tonight. We made a few mistakes and every single time they were able to capitalize. We just didn’t play aggressive enough. They won the puck and were winning all the battles. We have some things we need to clean up.”

Vig opened the scoring in the final two minutes of the first period with Mattson earning the assist. Mattson won a footrace to a loose puck along the side boards in the Minot United defensive zone and connected with a streaking Vig down the center of the ice. Vig ripped a shot over the glove of Seekings to get the Patriots on the board.

Rieger scored the lone goal of the second period to put Century up 3-0 and added the team’s fourth with a tap in tally in front of the net after a shot from Mattson hit off the shoulder of Minot United’s Chelsey Zieska and came to rest at Rieger’s feet, who was all alone at the edge of the goal crease.

Century (4-1-0-0. 4-0-0-0) entered Thursday’s game averaging 4.5 goals per game and has now scored six-plus goals in each of its last three contests.

“They kind of took it to us in our defensive zone,” Neuhalfen said. “We didn’t get any opportunities offensively. I think if we would have had more pressure, we would have gotten more chances and we could have built off that. We just couldn’t get anything going our way tonight.”

Defensively, the Patriots limited Minot United to just 17 shots on net, including only eight over the final 34 minutes. Meanwhile, they put 40 shots on Seekings, who finished with 34 saves.

“We make sure our kids are going to be defensively responsible,” Meyer said. “We’re clamping down as much as we can in the D zone. It’s early in the season, so we have to keep that mindset going forward.”

Minot United travels to take on defending state champion Legacy/Bismarck on Tuesday, Dec. 16, at 7:15 p.m.

“We don’t have time to think about it and feel sorry for ourselves,” Neuhalfen said. “I told the girls to learn from this and remember this feeling and we have to turn it around really quick.”

Boys Hockey: Christopher nets lone goal as Minot United tops Mandan

In a matchup of two high-powered offenses, it only made sense that Minot United and Mandan would combine for one goal in a battle between two of the top teams currently in the West Region.

That goal belonged to Minot United’s Nick Christopher, who netted his second goal of the season to lift his team to a 1-0 victory over Mandan on Thursday, Dec. 11, at Maysa Arena. The victory moves Minot United into a first-place tie in the West Region standings with Bismarck Legacy with nine points, just ahead of the Braves with eight points.

Christopher netted the game-winning goal at 9:46 of the third period on the power play. Minot United used its timeout following a high-sticking penalty by Mandan’s Ben Moch to draw up a play with the faceoff coming in its offensive zone. Christopher won the ensuing faceoff to Easton Bradley, who passed the puck off to Oliver Thompson at the top of the far faceoff circle. Thompson found Christopher to the left of the Mandan cage and Christopher one-timed a shot past Mandan goaltender Cooper Anderson for the decisive goal.

Minot United (4-2-0-0 overall, 3-0-0 West Region) held a 34-19 edge in shots.

Anderson finished with 33 saves for the Braves (3-1-1-0, 2-1-1-0), who suffered their first conference loss of the season and also failed to score for the first time this year, having scored at least three goals in every contest thus far.

Canton Christians earned his first shutout in net for Minot United, stopping all 19 shots he faced.

Minot United travels to play Bottineau/Rugby on Saturday, Dec. 13, at 6:15 p.m.