Mike Kraft/MDN Bismarck Century goaltender Noah Hamar attempts to clear the puck out of the crease as Minot United’s Cole Richeson skates in toward the net on Thursday, Jan. 29, at Maysa Arena.

As the calendar gets set to flip over to February, signaling the final month of the season, the playoff picture tends to get a bit clearer as teams fall into their respective seedings for the WDA Tournament.

Yet, with just a few games remaining on the schedule for most teams, the West Region standings remain blurry, with nothing set in stone. But the path for the Minot United boys hockey team to lock down the No. 1 seed remains the same as it did way back in December: win.

Minot United did just that against Bismarck Century, scoring a pair of early goals en route to a 4-0 victory on Thursday, Jan. 29, at Maysa Arena to complete the season sweep of the Patriots. With the win, Minot United remains in the driver’s seat atop the WDA standings with two games remaining on their schedule.

“That was a huge win for us,” Minot United goaltender Luke Richeson said. “We’ve kind of been playing down to our opponents’ level, but today we played our game and played as good as we could.”

The battle for the top seed tightened earlier in the week following Minot United’s loss to Jamestown on Tuesday, just their second loss in conference this season. The loss allowed Bismarck Legacy to climb within two points of Minot United entering Thursday, the closest any team has been of leapfrogging Minot United since December.

Minot United (16-4-0-0 overall, 13-2-0-0 WDA) responded with a six-goal outburst following their first conference loss, and wasted no time finding the offense Thursday night, needing just 11 minutes into the first period against Century to match their scoring output in 60 minutes in the loss against Jamestown.

“I thought we played a lot better,” Minot United co-head coach Jason Bennett said. “I think we played three full periods tonight and we’ve kind of been getting away with playing two good periods and not a full game, but I thought we put it together.”

Nolan Knowles got Minot United on the board just 1:40 into the game on a wrist shot from the slot that beat Century goaltender Noah Hamar stick side for his six goal of the season.

“It was a big start,” Knowles said. “Had to get the boys going and didn’t want Century to get the lead. “The puck went up to our defenseman Blake Haaland, I turn and see the whole Century getting a line change and Blake passed the puck to me and I buried it.”

Brady Grosz set up Minot United’s second goal of the opening stanza, winning a puck race against Century’s Ty Backes. Dane Voeller sent a long outlet pass from the Minot United defensive zone that Grosz tracked down deep in the offensive zone and found Tate Haugenoe all alone in front of the Century net, who slid the puck under the pads of Hamar for a 2-0 lead with 10:38 left in the first period.

“We’ve kind of got off to some slow starts, especially at home lately and getting a one-goal lead and then stretching it out to two was critical,” Bennett said. “Anytime you get a lead in hockey, you’ll take it.”

Minot United took the wind out of Century’s sails with a late tally in the second period to build a 3-0 advantage going into the second intermission. Following a failed clear out of the zone by the Patriots, a floating puck off the stick of Keller Schmeichel hit off Backes in front and went right to Landin Slind, who quickly snapped a shot short-side with 1:41 left in the middle stanza.

Jaxon Dahl punctuated the victory with Minot United’s fourth goal with 4:51 remaining in regulation. Oliver Thompson set up the goal for his team-leading 23rd assist.

Thursday’s matchup wasn’t the shootout that the first meeting in Bismarck turned out to be. That contest featured 11 goals with Minot United coming away with a 6-5 victory during their 13-game winning streak. Despite coming away with the win, Minot United was unable to limit Century’s big scoring trio of Heath Frykman, Alex Schlafman and Keaton Schulte. The three were responsible for all five goals, including a hat trick from Schlafman, and added five assists. On the season, Frykman, Schlafman and Schulte have combined for 68 points on 32 goals and 36 assists.

Minot United limited their production in the series finale. All three were unable to kickstart Century’s offense, as the Patriots were limited to 20 shots for the game.

“It’s knowing where those kids are on the ice at all time,” Bennett said.” We have some really good shutdown defense that we can match. The home team gets last change, so that was a benefit for us to get the guys out there that we wanted against them.”

Richeson earned the shutout with a 20-save performance.

Minot United travels to play Mandan on Friday, Feb. 6.