BISMARCK, ND – The Bismarck Bobcats’ home winning streak ended at eight games after the Cats suffered a 4-2 defeat at the hands of the Alexandria Blizzard on Wednesday at the VFW Sports Center.
Alexandria opened the scoring early and never looked back as Blizzard forward Nardo Nagtzaam deflected a point shot from Tyler Swanson past Bobcat goalie Ryan Faragher just 4:56 into the game.
Steve Zierke extended the visitors’ lead with 1:52 in the first, shaking loose from the Bobcat defense on the power play and, shooting back across his body, beat Faragher in traffic to make it 2-0 Blizzard.
Zierke followed up with his second of the night 93 seconds into the second period, taking a back door pass from Thomas Williams and firing it home to boost Alexandria’s edge to 3-0.
Brent Bain capped the Blizzard’s four-goal outburst with 12:00 left in the middle frame, cashing in an 8-foot, sharp-angle shot in transition to chase Faragher from the Bobcat net and install the away side to a commanding 4-0 lead.
Tommy Burke supplanted Faragher in net and, for the second time in as many appearances, was perfect against the Blizzard—stopping all 15 shots efforted his way.
The Bobcats finally got on the board with 10:01 left in the game when Tyler Richter grabbed a loose puck in the high slot of the Alexandria end and burned a shot under goaltender Jake Williams’ glove to cut the lead to 4-1.
After a number of near-misses by the Bobcats in the Alexandria end, Frank DeAugustine ripped a Richter rebound past Williams with 21 seconds left to shear the Blizzard advantage to 4-2, but the rally was too late-developing to affect the final result.
Burke did not factor into the decision as Faragher took the loss, his eighth of 2010-11.
Former Bobcat Williams made 20 saves en route to his 8th win of the year, improving to 2-1-0 in three games against his former mates.
The Bobcats and Blizzard will continue their weeklong three-game series Friday as the scene shifts to the Runestone Center in Alexandria, where the teams have split two games so far this season, for a 7:30 PM rematch.
Friday’s contest will be broadcast locally on the radio home of Bobcat Hockey, Super Talk 1270, KLXX-AM, and worldwide at http://nahl.fasthockey.com/. Pre-game coverage will begin at 7:00 PM CT.
Season tickets are now on sale for the 2010-11 season! Call the Bobcat Hockey office at (701) 222-3300 or email gobobcathockey@aol.com for more information on reserving your seats for the entire season as the Bobcats look to defend the Robertson Cup!
BOBCAT HOCKEY
2010 ROBERTSON CUP CHAMPIONS