St. Cloud, Minn. — The St. Cloud Norsemen started the weekend strong with a 6-2 victory over visiting Minot, before falling 5-4 on Saturday to split the first series of the season with the Minotauros.
Brandon Lajoie led the way in scoring on the weekend with a pair of goals in both games. Five Norsemen forwards scored in Friday’s 6-2 victory, including a goal each from Blake Perbix, Nik Hong, Ethan Lindahl and Chase Freiermuth in addition to Lajoie’s two goal outing. Tomas Bolo earned his fourth win of the season in goal, making 15 saves in the victory. The Norsemen fired 46 shots on goal in the winning effort.
The shooting gallery remained open on Saturday as the Norsemen outshot Minot 56-21, but the result was not the same, as St. Cloud fell 5-4 to the visiting Tauros. Minot took a 3-1 lead in the first and survived a comeback push from the Norsemen. Ethan Lindahl opened the scoring for St. Cloud in the first. Minot opened the second with a goal. Lajoie got one back in the second, and in the third, his fourth of the weekend, made it a 5-3 game. A late power play goal by Kade Peterson closed the gap to one, but Minot held off the charge by the Norsemen to split the weekend series.
The Norsemen are back in action on Friday against Austin at the Municipal Athletic Complex at 7:00 p.m. before road-tripping to Austin on Saturday. Tickets are on sale at tickets.stcloudnorsemen.com