Minot United senior captain Oliver Thompson led the team in scoring with 41 points on 16 goals and 25 assists, helping guide the team to a WDA regular season title and the No. 1 seed in the West Region Tournament. Minot United will play Williston in the quarterfinals on Thursday, Feb. 19, at 11 a.m. at the VFW Sports Center in Bismarck. Mike Kraft/MDN

Through the first two games of the regular season, it appeared as if the Minot United boys hockey team was in for a rebuilding year having lost a majority of their offensive firepower from last year’s graduating class.

Minot United dropped those games to East Region opponents by a combined score of 8-1 and surrendered 86 shots on goal, as the team matched their entire loss total from a year ago before the end of November.

Talks of a rebuild turned out to be premature. Minot United (18-4-0-0 overall, 15-2-0-0 WDA) came together as a unit soon after and finished the year winning 18 of their final 20 games, capturing the West Region regular season title and the No. 1 seed in the WDA Tournament as a result. Minot United rattled off 13 straight wins following that 0-2 start and had at least a share of the top spot in the WDA standings the entire season.

“We always knew there was still a lot here with this group of kids,” Minot United co-head coach Jordan Willert said. “There was still enough to be competitive. Did I know we were going to go on the type of run that we went on and do the things we were going to do? It’s hard to say. You hope as a coach that they do and the kids figure it out and the kids get a year older and step into roles they didn’t get a chance to do last year and they role with it and that’s what this group has done.”

Despite the year-over-year roster changes, Minot United has won at least a share of the WDA regular season title five of the last six years. Last season, Minot United got the monkey off their back and won the WDA Tournament for the first time since 2006, topping Century 5-1 in the title game.

Minot United begins their tournament title defense against No. 9 seed Williston in the quarterfinals on Thursday, Feb. 19, at 11 a.m. at the VFW Sports Center in Bismarck. The Coyotes defeated No. 8 seed Dickinson in a play-in game on Monday. Minot United swept the season series with Williston, winning 5-3 on Jan. 5 and 4-1 on Jan. 13. Williston was one of seven WDA opponents Minot United earned all six conference points against this season. Only Bismarck Legacy and Jamestown managed to earn points against them, both coming in one-goal games.

“We knew we had what it takes to be in this position, to be able to win the regular season title,” Minot United senior captain Oliver Thompson said. “I don’t know if we thought it would be a two-loss-in-the-West type season, but I think we knew what our goal was and we knew we had what he takes.”

Thompson finished the regular season as the team’s top scorer, registering 41 points on 16 goals and 25 assists. He is eighth in the state in scoring and second in the WDA. His 25 assists are tied for the most in the West Region with Legacy’s Harrison Johnson. Thompson has registered a point in every game but the season opener and is coming off a six-point performance against Bismarck High in which he netted four goals.

Thompson is one of nine players in the West Region to have at least 30 points on the season. Teammate Easton Bradley is another, recording 30 points on 15 goals and 15 assists. Nick Christopher was third on the team in scoring with 26 points, netting 11 goals and handing out 15 assists. Cole Richeson (19 points) and Blake Haaland (18 points) rounded out Minot United’s top-five scorers.

“Our biggest strength would be our chemistry,” Thompson said. “Some of our top guys have played together for a long time, but mix in young guys with the older guys, it was a little rough at times at the beginning of the year, but now we’ve started to gel as a team and we’re really starting to come together.”

Minot United enters the WDA Tournament coming off two of its best offensive showcases, netting a season-high 11 goals against Bismarck High after putting up eight goals against Mandan the game prior. Minot United has scored at least six goals in nine games this season and are averaging 4.50 goals per game. Minot United has managed to play from ahead in the bulk of their games, scoring the first goal in 17 of their 22 contests. They are 14-3 when scoring first and 15-0 when holding a lead after two periods.

“When they decide to play to our standard and play the right way and bring their lunch pails and hard hats and go to work, they are really good,” Willert said. “They are able to handle adversity at times. They do a lot of good and a lot of it is through hard work. They work extremely hard and when we do that we’re able to grind on teams. They definitely outshined expectations, not necessarily mine or the coaches’ expectations, but I definitely think the state’s expectations.”

Minot United’s defense has been just as solid, led from the net out. Luke Richeson has been goalie No. 1 the majority of the season, sporting a 12-2-0-0 record with a 1.34 goals against average, .931 save percentage and two shutouts. Minot United allowed 1.68 goals per game and have limited opponents to a goal or fewer 11 times this season.

With all that said. Minot United will be the first to say that success in the regular season doesn’t guarantee success in the postseason. There were 31 one-goal games played this season between WDA teams, showcasing how even in talent most teams are in the conference. Last year, Bottineau-Rugby advanced to the state tournament as the No. 6 seed. This year, Bismarck High is the No. 6 seed and is making its first appearance in the tournament since 2023 after a pair of play-in losses.

“It’s a slobberknocker,” Willert said. “You look at every single team and they could beat anybody on any given night. This WDA tournament is going to be awesome. It’s going to be up and down. On any given night you could see a team give another team a run for their money. If you get a hot goalie and you manage to chip in a few and all the sudden a top seed is down 2-0, who knows what’s going to happen.”

Nerves can also play a factor, and Minot United has a number of players on the roster that will be playing a bigger role in this year’s tournament than those in the past. Thompson is one of eight seniors on the roster and remembers what it’s like to be new to the postseason atmosphere.

“I was them at one point and I know how it feels and a guy that’s been around for a couple years, it means a lot to the younger guys to say something and be there to pick them up because that’s what they need the most at the end of the day,” Thompson said.

Minot United, Legacy, Jamestown and Mandan represent the top four seeds in the WDA Tournament, with Bismarck Century, Bismarck High, Bottineau-Rugby and Williston representing seeds 5-8. Minot United, Bismarck Century, Mandan and Bottineau-Rugby represented the West Region at state last year.

Every team in the field presents a potential challenge to Minot United. Legacy has three of the top scorers in the region in Johnson, Beckham Presley-McKay and Ben Garlie; Jamestown’s Leif Hanson and Mandan’s Jacob Walsch led the WDA with four shutouts in net and Century’s Noah Hamar and Bismarck High’s Owen Deeter each had three; and both Bottineau-Rugby and Williston come into the tournament with momentum after winning their respective play-in games earlier in the week.

“You can lose a game and still find your way into the state tournament, but literally every night you’re playing a one-game playoff and it’s what team decides to show up and do the little things, whether’s it’s blocking shots, chipping pucks out of the D zone, boxing guys out in front of the net, getting pucks to the net, getting bodies to the net,” Willert said. “It’s those little, little things people don’t always see or think about during hockey games that win games in the playoffs.”

There’s also the elephant in the room as it relates to the teams playing in the East Region Tournament, namely Grand Forks Central and Grand Forks Red River, who represent the top two seeds in the region yet again. The two Grand Forks programs have won nine or the last 10 state titles and at least one of those teams have advanced to the title game every year since 2013. Minot High is the last team from the West Region to win a state title, claiming the title over Central in 2015.

For now, Minot United isn’t focused on potential future opponents and is concentrating on this weekend in Bismarck. They will worry about the East when the time comes.

“Obviously, we know those are two tough teams and we know that the East is tough, but right now and during the tournament we want to focus on what’s going on inside our region and within our team,” Thompson said.

Minot United is seeking their third consecutive WDA Tournament title game appearance, 19th tournament title and 43rd appearance at state.