The Aberdeen Wings beat the Minot Minotauros 4-1 on Friday night in a penalty filled game. The Wings had 11 total penalties on the game while Minot had 10. The Wings special teams prevailed in this game stopping Minot on all 5 power play attempts, while getting a power play goal to help put the game out of reach. The Wings ended with 37 shots on goal, Minot struggled to get shots on net through the first 40 minutes, but woke up in the 3rd to end with a total of 36. Cole Moore Stopped 35 of those shots while Lawton Zacher of the Minotauros stopped 33.
In the first period Chase LaPinta of the Minot Minotauros beat Moore to give them a 1-0 lead at the 10:30 mark. The Wings outshot the Minotauros 18-4 in the period, with multiple good scoring chances despite being down 1-0. Penalties on Minot’s Joe Westlund for hooking 5:09 into the first, 14:48 into the first period the Wings went on the power play again thanks to a cross- checking penalty on Colby Woogk. Then with 12 seconds left of the first period Landon Parker and Chase LaPinta both went into the box for coincidental cross-checking penalties.
The second period looked a little more even though. At the 17:48 mark of the second Logan Gravink and Ben Johnson of Minot went to the box for elbowing making it a 4 on 4 for two minutes. Shortly after Roope Tuomioksa scored making it a 1-1 game the goal was assisted by Alexander Gullichsen. The Wings once again outshot Minot 12-10 in the period.
Three early penalties in the third period on the Wings gave Minot three separate power plays. The Wings penalty kill stood strong as Minot was scoreless on the power play. After the penalty kills the Wings would score making it a 2-1 game 13:17 into the third period on a shot from Zachary Reim coming off a nice pass from the corner by Michael Casey and Alexander Gullichsen. Then Minot got called for a head contact penalty on Adam Mahler giving the wings their fourth powerplay of the game. Minot had a turnover in the defensive zone and the Wings capitalized on it and scored giving them a 3-1 lead with the goal coming from Logan Gravink assisted by Owen Benoit and Alexander Gullichsen. With 1:23 left of the game Nikolai Tishkevich would close the door scoring an empty net goal which was assisted by Patrick O’Connell making it 4-1 wings.
With this win the Wings take full ownership of second place in the Central Division and look to keep this momentum going Saturday night.
“The team came out with a lot of energy, and when we do that we give ourselves a chance to win. Tonight was a really good road effort in a very tough building to play.” Wings Head Coach/GM Scott Langer
The teams will meet for the 4th straight time Saturday. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:35pm. Watch the game at Buffalo Wings & Rings in Aberdeen or at HockeyTV.com. Listen at 94.1 The Rock, HubCityRadio.com or The Rock App.
