Bobcats Split Weekend Series with Mallards
The Bismarck Bobcats traveled to Forest Lake, Minnesota this past weekend for a short two-game road trip to take on the Minnesota Mallards.
Friday’s contest, the Bobcats jumped on the attack early. Following an unsuccessful power play, Alexandr Kim found the puck in the slot and ripped one into the top corner to give the Bobcats the 1-0 lead. Scoring would stagnate for the next few minutes, until the Bobcats were able to find the back of the net once again with about six minutes remaining. Calle Arvedson wristed one from the point, while Nick Snyder got a stick on the shot and deflected it into the back of the net giving the Bobcats the 2-0 lead. Penalty trouble would once again be a factor for the Bobcats as in the last minute of the 1st period, the Mallards would find themselves on a 5 on 3 power play in which they would strike twice in 38 seconds to tie the game at 2 heading into the break. Shots on goal read 14-9 favoring Bismarck
While the end of the 1st was a backbreaker for the Bobcats, they regrouped in the intermission and dominated the 2nd period of play, outshooting the Mallards 22-4. The Bobcats found themselves on the man advantage near the beginning of the period and Josh Lehto made no mistake finding the back of the net to restore the Bobcat lead. Just a minute later the Mallards were awarded another 5 on 3 power play, but this time the Bobcats fended off the Mallards man advantage and kept momentum in their favor. Kyle Doll would join the scoring as he went between his legs and stuffed it home to give the Bobcats a 4-2 advantage, which they would take into the 3rd period of play.
The Bobcats continued their performance into the final frame as Lehto would net his 2nd of the game midway through the period, making it a 5-2 game. Just a minute later, Ollie Chessler would pick off a pass in the neutral zone and go coast-to-coast, slipping past a couple of defenders, circling the net, and wrapping it around past the pad of Zane Spaniol to give the Bobcats a 4 goal lead. The bounces would continue to go the Bobcats way as a shot rang in from the point off the stick of Charlie Sandven and hit Wyatt Sypniewski in the chest, before finding the back of the net, giving the Bobcats the 7-2 lead which would be the final score of the contest.
Tomas Anderson would stop 14/16 that came his way en route to his 21st win of the season.
Moving ahead to Saturday’s game the 1st period started out just about the same as the Bobcats would outshoot the Mallards 7-1 to start the first few minutes, but the Mallards began to breathe life in the middle stages and from that point would outshoot Bismarck 7-4 for a 1st period total of 11-8 favoring Bismarck. Bismarck netminder Kai Weigel made a couple of key saves in that first period, robbing the Mallards of the opening goal of the contest and keeping the game scoreless heading into the 2nd period.
The 2nd period this season for the Bobcats has been the best period of them all. They would once again hold the Mallards to 4 shots in the 2nd period while notching 17 of their own. The Bobcats were on the power play in the middle frame, their 3rd of the game, and Tommy Cronin located the rebound off of a Zane Rowan shot and pounded home the one-timer to give the Bobcats the 1-0 lead. Once again, the Mallards would be awarded a 5 on 3 power play in the 2nd period, their 3rd of the weekend series. Off of a wall battle that the Mallards won, they zipped the puck around and the team-leading goal scorer Hunter Hayes found the back of the net to tie it at 1. No more scoring in the 2nd period and it would all come down to the final period of play.
The 3rd period saw the Mallards come out with more intensity and fight as they outshot the Bobcats 9-3 in the first 7 minutes of the period. During that first 7 minutes, Minnesota would have a puck deflect off of Matthew Rafalski and deflect to the open-side of the net where it was pounded into the open cage to make it 2-1 Mallards. From that point on the Bobcats would outshoot the Mallards 8-1, but were unable to find the back of the net, despite pulling the goaltender with 2:36 remaining in the game, and the Mallards would force a weekend split.
The Bobcats moved to 29-6-2 after the weekend series. The Bobcats are back next weekend on home ice as they take on the North Iowa Bulls. Be sure to get your tickets by calling the Bobcat Hotline at 390-7422 or by logging onto BismarckBobcats.com. If you can’t make it to the games, catch all the action with the Voice of the Bobcats, Brandon Luisi on NATV and Super Talk 1270.