ST. CLOUD, Minn. – The Bismarck Bobcats kickstarted their 30th anniversary season with a dominating sweep over the St. Cloud Norsemen, outscoring the purple and white 13-4 over the weekend.
It started with the Maddox Malmquist show on Friday night, scoring the first three goals of the game for Bismarck in under 23 minutes of game time.
The first goal came short-handed after a fantastic feed from Will Harker from his knees sprung Malmquist on a breakaway, who made no mistake on Wesley Jefferson-Swint II.
That short-handed goal was one of four special team tallies on the day, on top of a 3-for-6 day on the man-advantage and a perfect 4-for-4 on the penalty kill.
The top line of Malmquist, Cade Bell, and Teddy Richardson, all NCAA D1 commits, produced a whopping nine points in the 7-1 victory, and didn’t stop there.
Saturday night was once again kickstarted by Malmquist, who scored a power-play marker in the first period, which was followed up by another man-advantage tally from Jake Caffrey.
In total the Bobcats went 7-for-13 on the power play over the weekend paired with a perfect 9-for-9 on the kill, a recipe for success over an opening weekend.
The Norsemen made a push in Game 2, trailing 4-1 at the start of the third but two quick goals made it a one-goal game, but a fourth goal on the weekend from Harker would help push the Bobcats to a 6-3 victory to secure the sweep.
Harker and Malmquist combined for nine of the 13 goals scored by the black and beige this weekend, and Richardson led the way with six helpers.
Bismarck will take its 2-0-0-0 record into the NAHL Showcase next week in Blaine, Minnesota, where they will take on three playoff teams from the 2025-2026 season across a four-day stretch.