The Bismarck Bobcats headed out east to Blaine, Minnesota for the only out of division play that they will see in the regular season.
First up for the Bobcats were the Corpus Christi IceRays. It would be the Bobcats striking first in the opening period, exposing a breakdown defensively from the IceRays. Royce Pietila found Nate Garski, who completed the tic-tac-toe play backdoor to Mark Evans for the easy tap-in to make it 1-0 Bobcats. After a Corpus Christi penalty expired, the IceRays made a great change and sniped one past Bobcat goaltender Nils Maurins to make it a 1-1 game with 3.7 seconds remaining in the period. Shots after the 1st read 8-3 Bobcats.
The 2nd period saw Corpus Christi begin to dominate in the early stages, forcing Head Coach Garrett Roth to call his timeout with 12 minutes remaining. That sparked some life into the Bobcat bench as 5 minutes later Defenseman Eddie Revenig dropped a pass back to Cooper Williams who wristed one home, restoring the Bobcats lead. They would then get an insurance goal late in the period as an IceRays defender went crashing into the goaltender and Gianni DiVita backhanded one into the back of the net to put the Bobcats up 3-1 which is the lead they would take into the 3rd period.
The 3rd period was a continuation of the 2nd as the Bobcats continued to pour on the pressure. Just a couple of minutes into the 3rd, Cade Bell would strike on the power play with his 1st of the season to extend the Bobcats lead to 4-1. Bismarck would control the game from there, sealing the victory with an empty-net shorthanded goal from Alexander Stephen as the Bobcats skated away with the 5-1 victory.
Nils Maurins stopped 22/23 in the winning effort.
Moving ahead to Friday’s game, which was a rematch of the Robertson Cup Final against the Lone Star Brahmas.
Both teams played a defensive style 1st period as no goals were registered on the stat sheet. Shots after the opening period read 7-6 in favor of the Bobcats. The Bobcats would go 0/2 on the man advantage in the opening frame.
Bismarck would commit an early penalty in the 2nd period, resulting in a Lone Star man advantage. The Brahmas made the Cats pay by scoring the opening goal of the contest to make it 1-0 in favor of the visitors. Lone Star would begin to control play from there as they limited the Bobcats’ chances. However, a nice give-and-go that started in the neutral zone between Revenig and Williams resulted in Revenig wristing the puck home for his 2nd of the season to tie the game at 1. Both teams would get more chances, but the game would enter the 3rd period tied at 1.
Neither team wanted to make a mistake in the 3rd, playing a very tight game. Both teams received a power play opportunity, but the penalty kills and the goaltending kept the door shut. In the final minute of the contest, Lone Star let a shot rip from the point and they found the deflection cutting through the slot, as the puck found the back of the net to give them a 2-1 lead. The Bobcats were unable to respond in time and the Brahmas came out victorious.
Kai Weigel stopped 24/26 in the loss.
The final game of the Bobcats’ showcase campaign took place on Saturday against the Maryland Black Bears of the East Division.
The Bobcats would open the scoring just a few minutes in as Fanda Broz wristed a shot far side on the goaltender for his first NAHL goal. Later in the period, the Black Bears responded on the man advantage, as Maurins was screened, the puck came whistling into the back of the net to tie the game at 1. From that point on it was all Black Bears, despite the period ending 1-1.
The 2nd period saw Maryland dominate the contest and take their first lead of the contest just 5 minutes into the period. The Bobcats did register 6 shots in the 2nd period, but they had no response to the impressive Maryland performance as they would enter the 3rd trailing 2-1.
The 3rd period was the same as the 2nd. Maryland struck on the power play to make it 3-1 in favor of the home side. Then an empty net goal sealed the deal with 3 minutes remaining to give the Black Bears the 2 points in the standings.
The Bobcats finished the NAHL Showcase with a 1-2-0 record and fell to 2-3-0 in the Central Division. The Bobcats are back in action this upcoming Friday and Saturday in Forest Lake, Minnesota to take on the Minnesota Mallards. Puck drop is set for 7:00 P.M. both nights.
Tickets for future Bobcat games and season tickets are available by logging onto www.BismarckBobcats.com