Bobcats Sweep Series @ St. Cloud, Regain 1st Place

The Bismarck Bobcats were on the road this past weekend for their longest trip in the month of January, in St. Cloud 

Looking at Friday’s contest, the Bobcats came out of the gates strong defensively only allowing 5 shots against in the opening period. It would be Bismarck opening the scoring as Mark Evans moved into the bumper position on the power play, received a pass from Camden Alemond and fired the puck into the back of the net to take a 1-0 lead with just under 8 minutes remaining in the 1st period. The Cats would take their 1-0 lead into the intermission after a strong period.       

The 2nd period was much of the same to start. Bismarck struck just over 2 minutes in, it would be Cooper Williams finding the back of the net for his 25th of the season on the breakaway. Royce Pietila got the primary assist on that goal with a beautiful stretch pass right onto Williams’ tape. St. Cloud wouldn’t register their 1st shot until just under 10 minutes remaining in the 2nd period. However, in the final 9 minutes they did send 7 shots on net. The Cats would get another late tally from Williams, who netted his league-leading 26th of the season to make it a 3-0 contest heading into the intermission.        

Moving to the 3rd period, the game plan for Bismarck stayed the same. St. Cloud didn’t put a shot on goal until 5 and a half minutes were gone in the 3rd period, they only had 4 shots total in the period, and the Bobcats cruised to a 3-0 victory. This marked back to back games where the Bobcats have not conceded a goal and their 3rd blanking of a team in the last 5 games. 

Dane Callaway stopped all 16 shots that were sent his way and notched his 3rd no-no of the season. 

Moving ahead to Saturday’s contest, the Norsemen controlled the opening few minutes, outshooting the Bobcats 6-2. However, once they hit that 6 shot mark, that would be all the shots they would take in the opening frame. Bismarck advanced on a 2 on 1, Kresl missed the net, but the puck bounced off the glass to Williams who batted it out of mid-air to make it a 1-0 Bobcat lead with 12:30 to go in the 1st. Later in the period, Gianni DiVita would tie up his man below the goal line, Ben Osiashvili was the 2nd man in support to pick up the puck, made a nice spin-o-rama move around a defender and fed Ben Rakowski who wristed the puck five-hole on Liden to give the Cats the 2-0 lead which they would take heading into the intermission. 

Bismarck picked up right where they left off as Osiashvili received a beautiful feed from Rakowski, made a couple of dekes and tucked it home for his 5th of the season to extend the Cats lead. The scoring would stalemate for a bit, but the Cats offense kept pushing. Eddie Revenig carried the puck from behind his net, all the way into the offensive zone, circled the net and found Mark Evans backdoor for the tap-in to make it a 4-0 game. The Norsemen would find the back of the net on the power play to end the Bobcats streak of not conceding a goal at 166:58. That made it a 4-1 contest heading into the 3rd period.   

Bismarck would continue their success of limiting opponents in the 3rd period as no one would find the back of the net and the Bobcats would skate away with the weekend sweep. Final shots on goal read 37-20 in favor of the Cats

Callaway with another impressive performance stopped 19/20 in the win. 

The Cats will be back on home ice this upcoming Friday and Saturday to take on the Austin Bruins in a battle for 1st place! We need everyone to rock the VFW! Grab your tickets by heading on over to tickets.bismarckbobcats.com or call/text the Bobcat Hotline at 390-7422!