BISMARCK, ND–For the second straight week, the Bobcats came up short in their attempt at sweeping an opponent after a opening-salvo road win.
Bismarck fell to the Aberdeen Wings 3-2 at the VFW Sports Center Saturday night, a night that saw their offense struggle to keep possessions despite overwhelming the shots-on-goal 33-21.
A second-period burst saw Evan Giesler (Naperville, IL) and Dan Kovar (Bismarck, ND) score 29 seconds apart, giving the Bobcats a 2-1 lead just 1:50 into the period.
But pucks in the slot undid the Bobcat effort. Kyle Haak would clean up a Jake Horton blast at 11:00 of the second to tie the game, and Erik Baskin zipped a wrister past the stick hand of Scott Albertoni (Arvada, CO) for the eventual gamewinner at 5:04 of the third.
"I didn’t think we had our same jump as we had last night," explained Bobcat head coach Layne Sedevie, referring to a gritty 5-4 win at the Odde Ice Center in Aberdeen Friday night. "I don’t know if we were tired, or what, but I don’t like excuses."
Excuse or not, the Bobcats managed to get two points out of the weekend with Seth Blair (Bismarck, ND) out with injury, Ryan Callahan (Grafton, ND) out Saturday due to a misconduct in Aberdeen Friday night, and leading scorer Filip Starzynski (Warsaw, Poland) away from the team this weekend.
Saturday did positives for the Bobcats. Giesler’s goal was on the power play, a power play that had dropped to 12.9% efficiency going into Saturday night’s game.
Chris Diver (Wilmington, DE) played his first minutes since being lost to illness nearly two months ago, and looked sharp through about a period-and-a-half.
"It will be nice to see this team healthy and together. Missing Starzynski and Callahan is tough. They are big parts of our team," remarked Sedevie".
Sedevie also mentioned that Callahan will likely stay in his assignment as a defenseman, even with the return of Diver. Callahan began the season as a forward, but made the switch after injury and illness took Diver and Levi Blom (Butte, MT) out of the equation.
The Bobcats return home to face the Fairbanks Ice Dogs Friday night at the VFW Sports Center, continuing a four-game homestand. They will face the Ice Dogs twice, then host Aberdeen on New Year’s Eve to wrap up the calendar year.