Five-Game Homestand Opens Friday for Bobcats
BISMARCK, ND – The puck drops on a critical five-game home stretch for the Bismarck Bobcats Friday night as the third-place Brookings Blizzard invade the VFW Sports Center before the Minot Minotauros pay a visit Saturday.
Friday’s matchup with the Blizzard will be the final regular season meeting for the Bobcats and Brookings, with the Blizzard (27-20-5, 59 pts) coming into the weekend just five points behind the Cats (29-16-6, 64 pts) for second place in the Central Division and home ice advantage in the opening round of the 2013 Robertson Cup Playoffs.
“It’s a huge weekend for us for playoff positioning, with the two teams behind us in playoff position coming to town,” explained Bobcats head coach and general manager Layne Sedevie, whose team has six of its last nine games of 2012-13 at home. “We’ve got the best fans in the NAHL and we’re 15-4-3 this year in front of them, so we want to make sure we’ll be playing week one of the playoffs here at home.”
Holding that five point lead with nine games to go, any combination of points gained in the standings by the Bobcats and lost by Brookings that adds up to 14 will secure the Bobcats at least a second-place finish.
In their last meeting, the Bobcats set a pair of season-highs, logging their biggest comeback of the year in overcoming a three-goal deficit to win 6-3 Saturday while pouring in three power play goals, their highest total to date in 2012-13. It was also the first time the Bobcats were able to defeat Brookings’ number one goaltender, Drew Weigman, who still sports a 4-1-0 record against the Cats.
“We took a lot of positives away from Saturday’s win, but we can’t let it go to our heads,” illustrated Bobcats defenseman Nate Repensky, who posted four points in Saturday’s victory. “Brookings is a tough, talented team and we can’t take any shifts off against them. We need to play like we did after we got down 3-0 Saturday if we want to finish strong against them.”
Following Friday’s game, the Bobcats will auction off their home jerseys.
Saturday, Minot comes to town eight days after shutting out the Bobcats 2-0 at Maysa Arena behind 40 saves from netminder Ryan Ruck.
“Our main focus for Minot is going to be to match their intensity and energy for 60 minutes,” asserted rookie Bobcat forward Evan Giesler, who tallied his first three goals of his junior career last week. “We also need to work harder to create better chances; we put 40 shots on Ruck last Friday but only maybe five of those shots were decent scoring opportunities.”
The game, one of four remaining between the NAHL’s two North Dakota-based franchises, will be Big Brothers Big Sisters night, with $1.00 from each ticket sold going to benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, courtesy of Farmers Union Insurance.
Both Friday and Saturday’s games are scheduled for a 7:15 PM puck drop.
Tickets for both games are on sale right now by calling the box office at 222-3300 or buying and printing tickets online at www.BismarckBobcats.com.
Friday’s season series finale between the Bobcats and Blizzard will be broadcast locally on the radio home of Bobcat Hockey, Super Talk 1270, KLXX-AM, and worldwide on the official internet television partner of the NAHL, FASTHockey, at http://nahl.fasthockey.com. Pregame coverage gets under way at 7:05 PM.
Pro-rated season tickets for the 2012-13 season are now on sale—and going fast! Call the Bobcat Hockey office today at (701) 222-3300 to reserve your seats for another great season of Championship Entertainment.