Bobcats Sweep Norsemen with Pair of Shootout Wins
The Bismarck Bobcats were back on home ice to take on the St. Cloud Norsemen for the 3rd and 4th straight contests.
Friday night, the Bobcats would get the scoring started, Jakub Kopecky in his 1st game back from injury, went between his legs on a rebound off the end wall to find the back of the net and give the Bobcats the 1-0 lead. However, St. Cloud would respond in the final minute of the period as Mason LeBel notched his 3rd goal in as many games to tie it up at 1. Throughout that opening period, the Bobcats outshot the Norsemen 10-7.
The 2nd period saw the Bobcats regain the lead as Keanu Krenn won a faceoff in the offensive zone and cut toward the net. Julian Beaumont found him with a beautiful pass for the back-door tap-in to make it 2-1 Bobcats. In the 2nd half of the period, St. Cloud would begin to take some momentum and rattled off two goals in a span of 19 seconds to take a 3-2 lead. Bismarck began to scramble, but Wyatt Sypniewski scored an incredible short-side snipe to tie the game back up at 3 heading into the 3rd period.
Defensively, Friday night was not the cleanest effort from the Cats. Just under 3 minutes into the period, the Bobcats turned it over in the defensive zone, in between the circles, and St. Cloud capitalized to regain the lead. This Bismarck team has a never-quit mentality, which was on display in the 3rd period. Tommy Cronin found the back of the net on a scramble for the loose puck to tie the game at 4. While other opportunities presented themselves in the final frame, we would need some extra hockey to decide the winner.
The overtime period was surely in favor of St. Cloud, who in the 5 minute extra frame, notched 8 shots on goal in comparison to Bismarck’s 3. However, Anderson shut the door and a shootout commenced. Bismarck being the home team, had the opportunity to choose their order in the shootout and they chose to shoot 2nd. Tomas Anderson made a big save on Mason LeBel in the 1st round to keep the Norsemen off the score sheet. Evan Hunter was the 1st shooter for the Bobcats. He skated wide left, cut back into the slot, made the goaltender bite and fired the puck into the back of the net. That ended up being the only goal of the shootout and the game-winner.
Tomas Anderson stopped 30/34 in regulation along with 3/3 in the shootout to tally his 31st win of the season.
Moving ahead to Saturday’s game, it was certainly a goaltender’s duel as Tomas Anderson faced off against Beck Liden. The 1st period saw the Norsemen strike early on a seam pass in the crease that was fired home by alternate captain Hudson Blue. The Bobcats had a great response however, as Keanu Krenn made an incredible play on the faceoff, winning it forward and finding Kopecky cutting through the crease who one-timed it home for his 2nd goal in as many games. The scoring would stagnate as both teams were unsuccessful in the middle stages of the 1st period on the power play.
The 2nd period the Bobcats came out playing extremely hard. They outshot the Norsemen 12-5 and generated some great looks, but Liden stood on his head and shut the door. On the other end, Anderson shut the door as well in the 2nd stopping all 5 that came his way. The game would enter the 3rd period tied at 1.
The 3rd period, the script was flipped. St. Cloud controlled a good amount of the period and outshot the Bobcats 9-4. However, we told you it was a goaltending battle, and both netminders once again shut the door and we would require overtime. In regulation, the Bobcats had the lead in shots on goal 24-22.
As opposed to last night’s overtime, the Bobcats maintained possession for about 75% of the overtime period and outshot the Norsemen 4-1, but St. Cloud did a nice job of defending the defensive zone and didn’t allow many 2nd chance opportunities. The game would go to a shootout for the 2nd straight night. The Bobcats entered Saturday’s shootout 5-1 in shootouts all season. St. Cloud would shoot first and LeBel found the back of the net, deking past Anderson. Hunter was up for the Bobcats and he too, found the back of the net knotting it up at 1. We would go all the way to the 5th round, where Sasha Kim would strike and send the crowd home happy.
With the win, Tomas Anderson notched his 32nd win of the season, and the Bobcats have now won 7 straight.
Next weekend the Bobcats are on the road to take on the North Iowa Bulls. Be sure to catch the action at one of our road watch party locations listed on the Bobcats social media pages!