MINOT, ND – Travis Kothenbeutel capped a three point night with the game-winning goal just 32 seconds into overtime as the Bruins erased a pair of two-goal deficits and rallied to win their sixth game in a row, by a 4-3 final on Friday night at Maysa Arena.
Minot took a 1-0 lead with a late first period power play tally. At 17:24, Nolan Sawchuk faked a slap shot and fed it down to Rykr Cole to the left of Bruins goaltender Alex Schilling for a deflection goal to open the scoring. The Bruins outshot the Minotauros 9-5 in the opening period, but trailed 1-0.
In the second, during 4-on-4, the ‘Tauros went up 2-0 on a goal by Alex Adams. Connor McGinnis took the puck into the high slot and spotted Adams with his stick on the ice driving the net. After Cole and Dante Zapata dropped the gloves, the Bruins got on the board at 7:29 of the period when Evan Cholak cut off an attempted clear through the middle and found Kothenbeutel at the left wing circle for a hard wrist shot and the first Bruins goal of the night. At 14:35, Minot went back up by two when Colby Enns took the puck wide and centered to David Raisanen for a 3-1 lead. A key goal by Lane Krenzen off a faceoff win at 18:42 brought the deficit back to one. Kothenbeutel picked up his 30th assist of the season on the play, and the Bruins trailed 3-2 heading to the third.
At 9:49 of the third, the Bruins finally got even when Xander Lamppa deflected Josef Mysak’s blue line shot to make it 3-3. From that point on, both teams seemed set on getting a point and the Bruins entered their fifth overtime in eight games.
Minot came off the opening faceoff of OT with a 2-on-1, but at the 32-second mark, Kothenbeutel flew ahead off a neutral zone faceoff and powered through ‘Tauro goaltender Jack Robbel with a backhand to win the game. Schilling stopped 17 of 20 for his 13th win while Robbel made 25 stops in the loss. The Bruins remain one point behind Aberdeen for first place as the Wings won their seventh in a row at the Wilderness. Austin goes for the weekend sweep and their seventh in a row on Saturday night at 8:05.
