The Bismarck Bobcats used a three-goal, first-period flurry and solid goaltending to hand the Austin Bruins their first regulation loss at home and their first regulation loss to a division opponent this season.
Bismarck scored three goals in a span of 3 minutes, 24 seconds in the first period and went on to post a 5-1 victory against Austin on Saturday at Riverside Arena.
Austin (12-3-2 overall) drops into a tie for first place with Brookings, which will visit Riverside Arena for a two-game series on Friday and Saturday. Austin will have a quick turnaround for its next game, however, as it travels to Coulee Region today for a 7 p.m. start at the Omni Center.
Bismarck received 22 saves from Aaron Nelson and a hat trick from Shane Omdahl in Saturday's victory. Omdahl started the scoring at 11:11 of the first period. Patrick Moore scored just 18 seconds later for a 2-0 lead, and Joe Giordano scored at 14:29 to make it 3-0 and silence a big crowd of 1,387 fans.
CJ Smith scored the lone goal of the game for the Bruins, at the 5:16 mark of the second period. Brandon Wahlin and John Simonson assisted on Smith's six goal of the season.
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Nelson shut the Bruins down the rest of the way, though, and Omdahl completed his hat trick for the Bobcats (8-9-1) with two power play goals in the final six minutes of the third period.
Austin outshot Bismarck, 23-20, but the Bruins were an uncharacteristic 0-for-9 on the power play. Austin entered the weekend ranked second in the NAHL on the power play, but it went a combined 1-for-15 in a shootout loss to Minot on Friday and the loss to Bismarck on Saturday.
Bobcats 5, Bruins 1
Bismarck#3#0#2#—#5
Austin#0#1#0#—#1
First period— 1. B, Shane Omdahl (Patrick Moore, Adam Knochenmus) 11:11. 2. B, Moore (Knochenmus) 11:29. 3. B, Joe Giordano (Cory Chapman, Levi Blom) 14:35.
Second period— 4. A, CJ Smith (Brandon Wahlin, John Simonson) 5:16.
Third period— 5. B, Omdahl (Knochenmus, Moore) 14:12 (pp). 6. B, Omdahl (Knochenmus, Moore) 17:34 (pp).
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Shots on goal— B 12-4-4—20; A 7-10-6—23. Goalies— B, Aaron Nelson (W, 4-1-1; 22 saves); A, Nick Lehr (L, 8-3-2; 15 saves). Power-play opportunities— B, 2-for-4; A, 0-for-9. Penalties— B, 12-27 minutes; A, 7-17 minutes.
Attendance— 1,387.
