AUSTIN — Nothing has come easily for the Austin Bruins this season, so why start now?
The Bruins built a three-goal lead after two periods, watched that shrink to one in the first seven minutes of the third period, then held off a late charge by the Minot Minotauros on Monday at Riverside Arena.
The Bruins' fingertips were sore from holding on so tightly to that one-goal lead over the final 13:42, but they did it and earned a 4-3 victory in the decisive Game 5 of the North American Hockey League Central Division Finals at Riverside Arena.
The victory gives the Bruins their second consecutive Central Division playoff title and their second consecutive trip to the Robertson Cup playoffs — the final four of the NAHL playoffs.
"It's all about family, that's what it comes down to," Bruins goalie Jake Kielly said. "These guys have all put in so much work. All of these two-year and three-year guys, this means so much to them and that's what really kept us going."
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The Bruins built a three-goal lead in the second period with their second three-goal period of the series. Nico Sturm, Josh Wilkins and Trevor Boyd scored in a span of 5 minutes, 34 seconds — with captain Brian Bachnak assisting on all three — to turn a tie game into a mountain for Minot to climb.
"We mentioned in the first intermission that we didn't have a good second period in this whole series," said Sturm, who also had an assist in the game. "We let off the gas pedal in every game. It was the last chance at a second period in this series and we wanted to come out strong.
"We took over momentum and that's how we have to play."
With that three-goal deficit in front of it, Minot was up to the challenge in the third period. The Tauros got a goal from Nick Monfils just 3:38 in, then another from Johnny Walker 2:40 later to pull within 4-3. But that's how it remained.
"I thought we came out of the gate pretty well in the third period," Bruins coach Chris Tok said. "We had a couple of good shifts, but when they made it 4-3, we went back into our shell. We broke out of it and started playing hockey again.
"Tonight was one of the first times in the series where we used our feet and our speed and hounded them and created turnovers."
Kielly held off the Tauros the rest of the way, making 18 saves in the game to send the Bruins back to the Robertson Cup semifinals for a second consecutive season.
"Late in the game, when the game was on the line, pucks were coming into him and he'd keep them in his glove, keep them in his chest," Tok said of Kielly. "He was swallowing rebounds and that's big."
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Now the Bruins will head to North Richland Hills, Texas, a Dallas suburb, for a best-of-3 Robertson Cup semifinal series Friday-Sunday against the Lone Star Brahmas. The winner of that advances to the Robertson Cup Finals against the Janesville (Wis.) Jets or the Minnesota Wilderness.
"We only have a few guys who have been in this situation," Tok said. "To the rest of them this is new. We said to them before the game, we hope you have fun and I'm pretty sure they did."
Austin has just five players on its roster who played on last year's Robertson Cup runner-up team.
"It is great to have 19 or 20 new guys and see everyone work together to mold them into a unit, a team," Tok said. "To win and get to this point, that's what you need. This group has a lot of will and character."
Bruins 4, Tauros 3
Minot#1#0#2#—#3
Austin#1#3#0#—#4
First period— 1. A, Luke Dietsch 4 (Ian Scheid 3, Trevor Boyd 7) 10:17. 2. M, Tim Athley 2 (Colton Kramer 2, Jared Brandt 2) 12:51. Second period— 3. A, Nico Sturm 6 (Brian Bachnak 3) 10:16. 4. A, Josh Wilkins 3 (Bachnak 4, Sturm 4) 12:27 (pp). 5. A, Trevor Boyd 2 (Bachnak 5) 15:50. Third period— 6. M, Nick Monfils 4 (Luke Davison 1, Jacob Howie 2) 3:38. 7. M, Johnny Walker 2 (Howie 3, Jon Lizotte 4) 6:18.
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Shots on goal— M 11-2-8—21, A 11-6-6—23. Goalies— M, Atte Tolvanen (L, 5-3; 23 shots-19 saves); A, Jake Kielly (W, 3-2; 21 shots-18 saves). Power plays— M, 0-for-4; A, 1-for-1.
Penalties— M, 1-2 minutes; A, 4-8 minutes.
