BISMARCK, ND. – After an exhilarating weekend sweep over the Austin Bruins, which saw a 4-0 shutout and an overtime victory to stay atop the division alongside Minot, the Bismarck Bobcats go back to the state of Minnesota to play St. Cloud for the second time this season.
The first matchup between the Norsemen and Bobcats also happened to be the first games of the season for both squads, games in which Garrett Roth’s squad went full throttle and never took their foot off the gas.
Outscoring St. Cloud 13-4 while going 7-for-12 on the man advantage, Bismarck will look for a similar performance as it strives to build off a three-game point streak and wins in seven of its last eight games.
The Bobcats’ blue line and defensive prowess has been one of the biggest stories early in the year, allowing the second-fewest goals in the entire league through mid-October after two strong starts from Linus Vieillard and a five-point weekend from defenseman Brenden Espenell who leads the team with 17 points.
Last weekend also saw a four-game goalless streak for Maddox Malmquist disappear thanks to his overtime winner on Saturday, and he returns to the St. Cloud Municipal Athletic Complex where he dominated with a five-goal series in September.
Meanwhile, the Norsemen have struggled to find their footing this season, crawling to a 2-9-0-0 start but have had plenty of close calls in the month of October.
A split with Aberdeen and two one-goal losses to the Minotauros shows the depth of the Central Division and with a hot power-play at 36% in the last five games, Joe Exter’s team looks to play spoiler in front of the home crowd this weekend.
While the power-play has been heating up, the penalty kill has been anything but for the purple and white.
A league-worst mark of 63.5% coming into the weekend, including three-straight games giving up two or more goals while down a man is a recipe for disaster against a Bobcats team that has the most power-play goals across the NAHL at 16.
With the Bobcats’ league-leading power-play set to face a struggling Norsemen penalty kill, special teams could once again play a decisive role in the series. Bismarck will look to carry the momentum from its sweep of Austin into the weekend, while St. Cloud aims to defend home ice and pull off an upset against one of the leagues hottest teams.
Puck drop is set for 7 pm on Friday and 6:30 pm on Saturday from St. Cloud. You can watch all the action live on nahltv.com or listen live on SuperTalk 1270 or the free SuperTalk 1270 Mobile App.