The Aberdeen Wings and the Minot Minotauros met for just the third time in the 2023-24 season Friday night in Minot — and after a tight contest for over 50 minutes, the Minotauros broke open the scoring in the third to take a 4-0 win over the Wings.
Minot got their first goal when Adam Mahler took a shot from the point that got past Wings goaltender Geno Pichora at the 8:43 in the opening period. Minot outshot the Wings 15-10, and the Wings killed two penalties while the Minotauros denied one.
The second period was scoreless — each team fired off eight shots on goal, and each team killed two more penalties. Aberdeen even shut down a brief 5-on-3 attack to close out the period, and Pichora did his job to keep his team within striking distance.
With the score still 1-0 heading into the third, the Wings knew they needed to generate some more offense to get on the board. However, Minot capitalized on an unfortunate bounce, and Hunter Longhi doubled Minot’s lead at the 13:12 mark in the third. Shortly after the faceoff, the Minotauros entered the Wings’ zone again and took a shot that Pichora initially saved, but Justin Dauphinais put the rebound into the back of the net at the 13:23 mark for the 3-0 lead.
Aberdeen did what they could to get on the board and start a comeback, but a slashing minor with less than two minutes left the game put them on the penalty kill for the sixth time in the game — and Longhi got the game’s lone power play goal at the 19:03 mark for the 4-0 lead.
Minot edged out Aberdeen in shots on goal in the final period 14-12, overall outshooting the Wings 37-30. Minot went 1-6 on the power play and the Wings had zero goals on six chances with the man-advantage themselves.
Aberdeen will look to salvage the weekend split Saturday night when the two teams meet again inside Maysa Arena with another 7:35 p.m. scheduled puck drop. Fans can watch the game using their HockeyTV login, or catch the action at Buffalo Wings & Rings in Aberdeen, the official home for all Wings away games. The game’s audio will be broadcast via Hub City Radio’s 94.1 The Rock, or via The Rock app.