In his third full season with the Tauros, James has played in 154 games, scoring 13 goals and assisting on 36 others for 49 career points in the NAHL. He’s been a part of 91 wins, two playoff appearances, a Central Division regular season and postseason title and an appearance in the Robertson Cup semifinals.

Despite all the accolades, the defenseman had never experienced the euphoria of scoring a game-winning goal in overtime. James added that feat to his hockey resume on Saturday, Jan. 24, netting his first career goal in overtime in Minot’s 4-3 victory off the Bismarck Bobcats at Maysa Arena for the Tauros’ first victory over their rival this season.

Skating 3-on-3 in the extra five-minute session, Dane Ramirez carried the puck deep into the offensive zone and drew the attention of all three Bobcat defenders as he skated down the sideboards to the left of goaltender Marko Bilic, leaving James alone in front of the net. Ramirez found the defenseman and James quickly snapped a shot stick side to send the crowd of 2,137 fans into a frenzy.

“There’s no better feeling than scoring in this building and being able to get that game-winner is really going to be memorable in my life,” James said. “We had the puck in the zone. Dane Ramirez was working down low and I saw an opportunity to jump down toward the net and he saw me and laid out a perfect pass. I think anyone could have made that shot, so shoutout to Dane for finding me.”

Mike Kraft/MDN The Minot Minotauros celebrate Ty James’ game-winning goal in overtime against the Bismarck Bobcats on Saturday, Jan. 24, at Maysa Arena.

James joined Ramirez and Evan Foiles as Tauros who have netted a game-winning goal in overtime this season. Foiles has done it twice. The Tauros improved to 8-6 in one-goal games this year.

“Ty’s a third-year veteran,” Minot coach Cody Campbell said. “He knows what we expect. He exemplifies that day in and day out. That’s a kid getting rewarded for a lot of hard work over a very long period of time that he has been here.”

The overtime session lasted less than two minutes, but the Bobcats (25-9-3) nearly ended it earlier with their lone shot in the extra frame. Bismarck had a primary scoring opportunity in front of the net, but Tauros goaltender Brian Cooke made the point-blank save to keep the game going. Cooke finished with 33 saves to earn his 10th win of the season.

“Obviously a lot of nerves, but I just have a lot of trust in the guys,” Cooke said. “You go into overtime with a mindset that it’s not even a possibility that we’re going to lose and that is more likely to become a reality. And you trust your teammates to make plays and that’s ultimately what happened.”

Minot’s strategy in the overtime period was to be aggressive with the puck instead of simply playing keepaway from the Bobcats.

“Obviously, you want to possess the puck as much as possible,” Campbell said. “Sometimes you watch 3-on-3 overtime and there can be a lot of perimeter play and regroups and that kind of stuff. We talk about possessing the puck, but possessing it to attack.”

For the second straight night, the Tauros (15-18-4) entered the third period with a lead only to see the Bobcats rally to force overtime. On Saturday, Minot led 3-1 with just over 13 minutes remaining in regulation before Bismarck netted two quick goals. Ben Rakowski cut Minot’s lead in half at 6:56 of the final stanza and Oscar Jonsson stuffed home the puck past a sprawled-out Cooke in the goal crease for Bismarck’s second power-play marker of the contest to tie the game with 9:29 remaining.

Cooke was undeterred despite the scoring burst for the Bobcats, focusing on keeping them off the board the rest of the game, which he did.

“You just try to do your best to compartmentalize,” Cooke said. “After a play has happened, it’s over and in your mind it never happened. My mentality is that if I have nine minutes left, I have a nine-minute hockey game and if there are five minutes left, I have a five-minute hockey game. When you break it down like that it takes all the negatives out of it. All you’re doing is looking forward and going out there and playing.”

Things went from bad to worse with the Tauros on the power play soon after Jonsson’s game-tying goal. Philip Wiklund was whistled for interference right in front of the Tauros bench and the Tauros were assessed a second bench minor penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct, sending two Minot skaters to the penalty box. The end result was a 5-on-3 for the Bobcats for 1:11 with just over seven minutes to play.

The Tauros kept the Bobcats off the board, blocking shots in front and Cooke making the stops that got through, reestablishing momentum in Minot’s favor down the stretch.

“The building was rocking,” Cooke said. “That absolutely changed the course of the game because they had just scored two straight and we were on the power play and they ended up getting a 5-on-3, which really changed momentum in their favor and then we got some huge blocks by our defensemen and then the crowd – the seventh man – really helped us win that game.”

Neither team would net the winner in regulation, leading to James’ overtime heroics.

James closed out the scoring and opened it as well, netting a power-play goal 2:52 into the game for another first for the defenseman: his first multi-goal game in a Tauros sweater.

Jonsson scored his first of two early in the second period to pull Bismark even, but Briggs Knott and Philip Wiklund lit the lamp before the end of the stanza to give Minot a 3-1 advantage heading into the second intermission.

Both teams finished 2-for-6 on the power play.

The Bobcats held a 36-28 edge in shots on goal.

Entering Saturday’s game, the Bobcats were one of two Central Division foes the Tauros had not been able to solve so far this season. They had lost their first four matchups with their rival, three of which were decided by three or more goals. So, obviously, it felt good to finally get that monkey off their back.

“It’s always great to get a Bismarck win,” James said. “I hate to see them get a win against us because we’re rivals. But we got it and we just have to keep it rolling.”

The Austin Bruins are now the only Central Division opponent the Tauros have yet to beat this season, dropping their first four contests.

The victory gave the fans – the third-largest crowd at Maysa Arena this season – something to remember as the Tauros now head on the road for the next three weeks for games against Watertown, Aberdeen and Minnesota. Minot doesn’t return to the friendly confines of Maysa Arena until Friday, Feb. 20, when it hosts Watertown at 7:35 p.m.

The Tauros were 1:58 away from earning their first win over their rivals 24 hours earlier, but Bismarck’s George Poirier scored on the power-play to tie the game and Eddie Revenig scored another goal with a Tauro in the box at 2:47 of overtime to hand Minot a 5-4 overtime loss on Friday, Jan. 23, at Maysa Arena.

Bismarck scored three goals on the night with the man advantage, finishing 3-for-6. The Tauros took two penalties in the final 2:34 of regulation, the second coming with just 15 seconds left, allowing the Bobcats to start overtime with a 4-on-3 advantage.

“(Friday) night’s overtime loss was just the result of self-inflicted wounds basically,” Campbell said. “It was things that we have to make sure don’t happen like penalties and different things.”

Jonsson scored the first power-play goal of the night to give Bismarck a 1-0 lead 6:26 into the contest. The Tauros countered in the second with Volodymyr Naumenko and Davin Nichols each netting their third goals of the season. Nichols scored in the final 17 seconds of the period to give the Tauros a 2-1 advantage heading to the third.

The teams exchanged leads during the five-goal third period. Dennis Lominac and Cooper Williams scored three minutes apart early in the stanza as Bismarck reclaimed its lead. But Ramirez and Foiles responded with back-to-back goals of their own to give the Tauros a 4-3 advantage with 6:27 remaining.

The Bobcats outshot the Tauros in all three periods, leading to a 44-24 advantage over 60 minutes. Chase Anderson received his second start of the year, finishing with 39 saves. Dane Callaway got the nod for the Bobcats, earning the win with a 20-save performance.

The Tauros just missed out on a four-point weekend, but still earned three points, moving them into a tie for fifth place in the Central Division with North Iowa with 34 points each. They are both just three points outside of the final playoff spot, which is currently occupied by Watertown with 37 points.