White-Knuckler

Jan 24, 2013

 

Bobcats Eke out 3-2 Road Victory

ABERDEEN, SD – The Bismarck Bobcats raced out to a big lead and hung on for a 3-2 win Friday over the Aberdeen Wings at the Odde Ice Center to halt a two-game losing streak.

Newcomer Travis Underwood, playing in his fourth game since arriving in a trade from Amarillo, tallied his first goal in black and gold with 3:09 left in the first period to boost the Bobcats to a 1-0 lead through one.

Cory Chapman doubled the lead to 2-0 8:41 into the second, blazing a low shot past Aberdeen netminder Chad Catt in transition moments after Bobcat goalie Bryan Nies made four consecutive saves to keep the Wings off the board.

“After I got that goal, I pointed down the ice to Bryan because he helped make it happen,” credited Chapman, who has five goals and four assists in his last 13 games. “Filip [Starzynski] made a nice pass that set the whole thing up and gave me a lot of room to shoot.”

Patrick Moore put an exclamation point on the Cats’ three-goal rally on the power play 2:22 later, taking an entry pass from Adam Knochenmus on the rush and ripped a wrist shot over Catt’s glove to make it a 3-0 spread for the Bobcats.

When Moore’s strike stretched the twine, the Bobcats had outshot the Wings 10-5 at that point in the period and 23-11 overall.

“The first 13 minutes of the second period is some of the best hockey we’ve played lately,” stated Bobcats head coach and general manager Layne Sedevie. “Guys were winning races to pucks and playing hard and selling out on every shift. The way we played leading up to Patty’s goal is how we need to play every shift, every period, every game.”

Aberdeen built late momentum over the last seven-plus minutes of the period courtesy of back-to-back power plays but could not solve Nies.

Justin Parizek put the Wings on the board for a 3-1 score just 17 seconds into the third, grabbing a Peter Krieger rebound off a faceoff win and stretching it past Nies to spoil the rookie’s shutout bid.

Wings captain Emil Blomqvist chopped the lead to one at 3-2 with 12:05 left in regulation, stuffing a wrap-around inside the left post of the Bobcat net.

Nies was called on to respond after Blomqvist’s tally, stopping all 13 shots the Wings launched his way in the final 10 minutes of regulation. A furious Aberdeen rally in the last minute only yielded one shot as the Bobcat defense clamped down on the Wings’ attack.

In all, Nies totaled 39 saves to pick up his eighth win on the year and his fourth in as many starts. Catt finished with 29 stops but could not avoid his sixth loss of the season.

With the win, the Bobcats seize a 12-3 lead in the Titan Machinery Dakota Cup through seven matchups.

The Bobcats and Wings will wrap up their two-game series Saturday with a 7:15 PM rematch.

Saturday’s series finale 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 6:45 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.

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