MINOT, N.D. — A long road trip led to a slow start for the Austin Bruins, but they roared back in the third period to beat the Minot Minotauros 4-2 in a North American Hockey League Central Division game Friday night at Maysa Arena.
The victory extends the Bruins' winning streak to six games and their points streak to an almost unhead of 19 games; in other words, they've gone 19 consecutive game without losing in regulation. That's nearly one-third of the 60-game NAHL regular season. ADVERTISEMENT They did it Friday night in dramatic fashion, scoring three times in the third period to rally from a 2-1 deficit to beat Minot for the first time in three tries this season.
Austin opened the scoring late in the first period, when defenseman Ryan Lund, a Warroad native, scored his third of the season with 3:58 to play in the period. Minot controlled the next 24 minutes, though, as Chuck Owens scored with 34 seconds to go in the first, then Leo Cabulis gave the Tauros a 2-1 lead eight minutes into the second. The third period was all Bruins, as they outshot Minot 11-6 in the frame and 34-24 in the game.
Jackson Rilei started the rally with his seventh goal of the season, 7:49 into the third, tying the score 2-2. That's how the score remained until the clock ticked down close to the 5-minute mark. That's when Ludvig Mellgren and Luc Malkhassian set up Emil Samuelsson for his sixth goal of the season, which turned out to be the game winner, with 5:15 to go.
Alex Laurenza added an em.
