MASON CITY, IOWA – The eight game winning streak came to a halt Friday night as the Austin Bruins (30-9-2-1, 63 pts) fell 4-1 to the North Iowa Bulls (20-18-1-3, 44 pts).
The Bulls struck early in the first period, taking advantage of a Mikey Coleman tripping minor. Fuji Suzuki sped through the offensive zone to rip a power play goal past Jack Solomon to take a lead they would not surrender.
Despite outshooting the Bulls eleven to nine in the first, the Bruins would head to the locker room down 1-0.
North Iowa’s Joe Coghlin added to the lead at 3:31 in the second, taking advantage of an Austin turnover. Coghlin caught an errant pass right in front of the crease and shot to extend the lead to two.
Vitaliy Korolyuk broke away for a one on one chance with Solomon late in the second, tipping a shot over Solomon’s glove to make it a three goal game headed to the second intermission.
Captain Nathan Williams got into a heated exchange with Bulls forward Niko Russ after time had expired leading to a double minor on Williams for roughing and a minor on Russ for the same leading to a Bulls power play to open the final frame.
Austin would finally find the back of the net late in the third when Kyle Sorensen walked his way between the circles off of a faceoff win to finally beat North Iowa goalie Charlie Durkin at 10:48. Sorensen’s 27th goal of the season marks two in three games since joining the Black and Gold.
After coincidental roughing penalties on Austin’s Alvin Elisson and North Iowa’s Michael Malatino, the Bruins pulled Solomon to give them the advantage and try to cut into the two goal deficit with just under four minutes left in the game.
They wouldn’t find the twine again, instead, Suzuki would score his second goal of the game into an empty net to solidify the upset.
Austin remains first in the Central Division with just 17 games left to go in the regular season.
The two teams meet again Saturday night in Austin for their final matchup of the regular season. Bruins fans can take advantage of the Buy One Get One Free Valentine’s Day ticket special when they use the promo code “LOVE” at tickets.austinbruins.com. Puck drop Saturday is scheduled for 7:05pm at Riverside Arena in Austin.
