Bobcats Swept by Bruins at VFW

The Bismarck Bobcats were back on home ice for the only two home games in the month of January to take on the Austin Bruins. 

It was a heck of a start to Friday night’s contest as the Bruins came out and struck twice within the first 8 minutes of the period to hop out to an early 2-0 lead and silence the home crowd. The Bobcats woke up later in the period and tallied 3 power play goals of their own in the closing 6 minutes. First, Cooper Williams would get the Cats on the board with his 28th of the season. Camden Alemond would join the party as well under 2 minutes later tapping the puck home on a backdoor feed. Williams would once again find the back of the net on a hard shot to give the Bobcats the 3-2 advantage heading into the intermission.    

The 2nd period saw the Bobcats’ momentum continue. Bismarck struck twice within 33 seconds as George Poirier followed his own rebound at the front of the net and slapped the second try into the back of the net giving the Bobcats the 4-2 lead. Patch Cronin would then take advantage of a defensive breakdown on a 3 on 1 and rip home a shot from the hash marks. After that, however, the Bruins tallied two goals of their own to pull back within one. Bismarck would take a 5-4 lead heading into the 3rd period.        

Things were going well for the Cats as they limited Austin’s opportunities in the 3rd, but with just under 2 and a half minutes remaining, the captain Nathan Williams wristed a shot up high that beat Dane Callaway to knot us up at 5 and take us to extra time.  

The overtime session was relatively uneventful, as the game would require a shootout to decide it. In the 7th round EJ Paddington would fire one past Callaway just under the crossbar. Alemond would be the shooter for the Bobcats as he was stopped by Solomon, giving the Bruins the extra point. 

Moving ahead to Saturday’s contest, it was a penalty filled contest and a penalty filled 1st period. 75 penalty minutes in the 1st period alone, and just one goal to speak of. Mikey Coleman got his stick free and fired it into the back of the net to make it a 1-0 game. Austin would take that lead into the 1st intermission. 

The 2nd period was a mess for the Bobcats, as they conceded the next 3 goals to go down 4-0. However, Alemond would bring the Cats back to within 3 and give a little life to the crowd. The Bruins would immediately shut that down with two more before the end of the period to take a 6-1 lead into the 3rd period.    

While the Bobcats would dominate the 3rd period, they were only able to get two on the board as Pietila and Williams tallied on the power play and Austin would skate away with the 6-3 victory.

The Cats will hit the road next weekend to take on the Minot Minotauros at Maysa Arena! If you can’t make it out to the game head on over to one of our road watch parties listed on our social media pages!