ST. CLOUD, Minn. – The Austin Bruins completed their three game sweep of the St. Cloud Blizzard on Saturday night by way of a 7-4 win on the road. With the win, the Bruins improved their win streak to six straight games while also extending their point streak to a league-leading ten consecutive games.
For the second night in a row, the Bruins fell down in the first period to the St. Cloud when the Blizzard struck first. It was a little less than three minutes in when Brock Draeger opened the scoring with a redirected shot that beat Bruins netminder Brett Miller for the 1-0 St. Cloud lead. Despite chances on both ends, neither the Bruins nor the Blizzard could muster any more goals in the first and the teams went to the locker room with Austin trailing by one.
In the second period, the Bruins exploded, but not before St. Cloud managed to extend their lead. Only nine seconds into the middle frame Bud Winter scored to make the game 2-0 in favor of the home team. After that, the Bruins took control and never relented. Shortly after falling into the two-goal hole, the Bruins battled back by scoring three goals in two minutes and 32 seconds. Barrett Brooks helped Austin get the scoring started when he sniped the top-shelf behind St. Cloud netminder Sam Metcalf to bring the Bruins within one to 2-1. A little over a minute later later, Tiernan Shoudy scored his first goal of the night evening the score at 2-2. Moments after evening things up, Jaden Shields scored on the power-play, his second goal of the three game set, to give the Bruins their first lead of the night, a lead they would never let go of. Austin managed to keep St. Cloud from scoring anymore in the period, and after forty minutes of the play the Bruins led by the narrowest of margins, 3-2.
Out of the gates in the third, the Bruins would double their lead to 4-2 when Connor Mylymok split through two St. Cloud defensemen and pushed a shot five-hole between Metcalf. The Blizzard made sure to give their fans more to cheer about when Luke Aquaro pulled St. Coud closer, to 4-3, with his 11th goal of the season. It was a trend that would continue in the third period, with the Bruins have a two goal lead that would get chopped to one, only for Austin to regain it with strong offensive play. With the score 4-3, their two goal lead was regained when Dante Sheriff sent a laser past Metcalf for the Bruins fifth of the night, his seventh point on the weekend. St. Cloud got back within one once again midway through the period, but Hugh Larkin increased the Bruins lead to 6-4 with just over four minutes left to play, while Tiernan Shoudy netted his second goal of the night, this one on the empty net, to make it 7-4 and ensure the Bruins victory.
With the win, the Bruins improve to 20-9-2-4 on the season and take sole possession of second place in the NAHL central division. The Bruins ten-game point streak is the longest since 2017-18 where they also registered ten straight with a point and is the longest active streak in the NAHL. Following the loss, the Blizzard fall to 9-22-3-1.
Up next for the Bruins, they host the Minot Minotauros for a pair of games at Riverside Arena on Friday, January 17 and Saturday, January 18. The game on Friday is another $10 Night where all tickets are priced at $10 and fans can enjoy drink specials and so much more. On Saturday, the Bruins are proud to celebrate Hockey Day in Minnesota and every youth hockey player that wears their jersey to the game will get free admission. To get your tickets to either game, be sure to stop by any one of the Bruins vendors including Games People Play, Hy-Vee, Holiday Inn, and Jim’s Marketplace, starting Monday, January 13.
