A Perfect Week: Bruins Sweep Wings for Fourth Straight Win

Oct 22, 2017

Photo credit: Jess Tuttle

AUSTIN, MN – Benito Posa, Valdemar Ahlberg, and Alex Mella all scored in a span of 3:40 in the second period to break a 1-1 tie and lift the Bruins to their fourth win in a row, their third of the week, and a sweep of the Aberdeen Wings on Saturday night at Riverside Arena.

The first period was reminiscent of Friday’s game – tight-checking and low-scoring. The Bruins grabbed a 1-0 lead, however when Andy Willis dribbled a power play goal off the glove of Wings netminder Gabe Vinal at 8:55. Travis Kothenbeutel and Benito Posa assisted as the Bruins took their lead into the locker room.

The second period began quietly until Aberdeen got even at 7:41 with a power play goal of their own. Adam Pitters, who had the Wings lone goal on Friday, found himself open to the left of Bruins goaltender Alex Schilling and he slid the puck into the open side for a 1-1 tie. The turning point of the game came 59 seconds later when Wings defenseman Dalton Weigel stumbled at the blue line, sending Benito Posa on a breakaway. Posa lifted a shot up over Vinal’s glove to restore the Bruins lead. Austin’s lethal power play struck again at 11:06 when Justin Brandt spotted Valdemar Ahlberg in front of Vinal. Ahlberg had to turn his body to get a shot away and slid it into an empty net to make it 3-1. Jaden Shields also had a helper. 1:17 later, Alex Mella netted his first NAHL goal, finishing a 2-on-1 facilitated by Travis Kothenbeutel. The Bruins took a commanding 4-1 lead into the 2nd intermission.

Aberdeen jumped back in the game with an early third period goal from Trey Bagwell at 2:24, set up by a nice pass from Logan Britt across the zone. That’s as close as the Wings would get as Sviatoslov Kuchysnki put the game away with an empty netter at 18:49 – the Bruins’ third power play goal of the night. Schilling stopped 25 of 27 for his first win of the season.

The Bruins try to keep their streak alive with a Wednesday morning affair at home against the Brookings Blizzard at 11:30 AM. Limited general admission tickets are on sale at the Bruins ticket vendor locations. After Wednesday, the Bruins begin a five game road trip in Brookings over the weekend.

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