AUSTIN, MINN. – The Central Division Semifinal kicked off with an intense game at Riverside Arena Friday night. The top-seeded Austin Bruins held on to beat the Watertown Shamrocks 3-2 to take a 1-0 lead in the opening round of the postseason.
Tensions flared early on in the contest when Watertown’s Payton Struck cross checked Austin’s Zander Lipsett after a whistle to put the Bruins on the power play early. The top-ranked power play was unable to convert on its first opportunity.
Watertown would get their chance with the extra skater at the 9:34 mark in the opening frame after Sam Kline was called for a hook. Antons Macijevskis swept a rebound chance past Jack Solomon to score the first goal of the series and take a 1-0 lead.
Bruins defenseman Gus Elbert evened things up five minutes later after wrapping a puck around Shamrocks goalie Mason Gudridge at 15:03 to even things up with the Black and Gold’s own power play goal.
A late high sticking on Watertown’s Noah Sergott put the Shamrocks shorthanded again, this time for four minutes with a double minor penalty. The penalty trickled over to the second period and despite the long power play, the Bruins were unable to take the lead.
Rookie forward John Flood broke the tie at 3:56 when he took an open wrist shot from the point and got his own rebound and with help from JJ Franceschetti, barreled through Gudridge to give the Bruins their first lead.
The Bruins added on insurance in the third period when EJ Paddington beat Gudridge at 6:33 in the third period.
The insurance was needed as the Shamrocks kept attacking through the rest of the period. Watertown outshot Austin 11-4 in the third period and it was Jake Pietila rifling one into the chest of Solomon that banked in to cut the lead back to one at 14:31.
The Shamrocks tried pulling Gudridge in the final few minutes, but Austin didn’t let up the puck easily. Finally, with about 90 seconds to go, Gudridge raced towards the bench to leave the net untended.
Austin shut things down to hold onto the lead and take the victory and the series lead.
The Bruins remain at Riverside Arena for Game Two Saturday night with puck drop scheduled for 7:05pm.
Fans can get tickets to the game by visiting tickets.austinbruins.com or visiting one of the team’s ticket vendors: Games People Play, HyVee, or Jim’s Marketplace.
