Mason City, IA- The North Iowa Bulls opened their weekend slate against the Minot Minotauros with a 5-1 loss on home ice.
Minot controlled the pace and offensive feel of the first period with an 18-2 shot counter in Minot’s favor. Bulls goalie Santo Simmchen put on one of his best performances in the first period to keep the game at 0-0 through the first period despite the lopsided shot counter. The teams combined to go 0-3 on the power play in the opening stanza and the game entered the first intermission even at zeros.
The Bulls struck first in the second period on a power play goal courtesy of Jack Seaverson 13:25 into the second period. Cooper Conway and Blake Ulve recorded assists on the goal and North Iowa held the momentum and the lead. That was, until the Minotauros tied the game less than a minute later when Ty James scored his first NAHL goal. North Iowa protested the goal, as Santo Simmchen was knocked down at the time the goal went in, but the protests went unheeded. To add insult to injury, the Minotauros got a power play chance immediately following the goal that they capitalized on. Colby Woogk recorded the first of two goals to take the lead for Minot. John Small and Chad Muller recorded goals in the back stretch of the second period to extend the lead to 4-1 before intermission. Woogk’s second goal came in the third period to end the scoring at 5-1 for a Minot victory.
Santo Simmchen recorded a 43 save effort to keep the Bulls close for much of the night.
Brady James recorded 17 saves on 18 shots in Minot’s net.
The Bulls and Minotauros conclude their playoff series on Saturday afternoon at 3PM. Every purchase of a Bulls’ ticket gets a complimentary Mason City Toros playoff ticket for the Fraser Cup Playoff game that follows the Bulls’ game at 7:30 PM.