AUSTIN, Minn. – The Bruins extended their point-streak to six consecutive games on Friday night with a 2-1 win over the Bismarck Bobcats in North Dakota.
Coming into the game, the Bruins were down a handful of players due to injury or illness and needed a “next man up mentality”. Bismarck scored the game’s first goal to take the 1-0 lead. Lars Rodne the puck off a block and sped it past Brett Miller who was stuck reacting to the initial shot. Despite giving up the game’s first goal, Austin didn’t back-down. Only 47 seconds later, Dante Sheriff dropped a pass for Chase Pilawski who sent a wrister to the front of the net which was expertly redirected by Hugh Larkin over the shoulder of Bobcats goalie Andrew Miller to even the game at 1-1.
Later in the third period, Brett Miller made a sequence of incredible saves while face down in the crease, fighting one off the pads and a second of his glove arm. The goalies efforts helped keep the game even going into the first intermission.
Out of the gate in the second period, the Bruins found themselves shorthanded with Matt DeRosa in the box for tripping. Defenseman Josef Mysak worked his way into the offensive zone shorthanded and ripped a wrist-shot over Andrew Miller’s right arm for the Bruins second goal of the night, making it a 2-1 game.
In the third period, Austin suffocated the Bismarck offense by allowing only eight shots on goal, the fewest in a period on the night. In the final moments of the game with the goalie pulled, Peter Jacobs slid to block a shot, subsequently got to his feet to control the loose puck, cleared it the length of the ice and even beat out the Bobcats to negate the icing. The strong effort by Jacob helped tick off the seconds and following a dump in, Mysak held the puck to the wall for the games final moments.
With the win the Bruins improved to 16-9-2-4 while the Bobcats dropped to 19-7-1-3. The two teams meet for a rematch on Saturday night to wrap up the weekend series. Up next for the Bruins following Bismarck is a three-game set with the St. Cloud Blizzard. On Thursday, January 9, the Bruins travel to St. Cloud before welcoming the Blizzard to Austin on Friday, January 10. After the game on Friday, the Bruins head back to St. Cloud for their final meeting with the Blizzard on the weekend. Tickets for Friday night’s game go on sale Monday, January 6 at all the Bruins vendors including Games People Play, Hy-Vee, Holiday Inn, and Jim’s Marketplace.
