Bobcats’ Road Streak Halted at Minot
MINOT, ND – The Bismarck Bobcats fell behind early in the second period and never found a response, falling 5-0 to the Minot Minotauros Friday at Maysa Arena to snap their season-high road winning streak at five games.
Following a scoreless opening frame, the Cats surrendered a shorthanded goal to Christian Mohs just 25 seconds into the second—the second shorthanded strike by Mohs in the teams’ last two meetings—to fall into a 1-0 hole.
That deficit doubled 1:42 later when Minot defender Max Mettler fired a low rolling shot that deflected off a Bobcat defender and in past netminder Alex Bitsakis to make it 2-0 for the home side.
Late in the second the Bobcats turned up the heat on Tauros goalie Atte Tolvanen, outshooting Minot 6-1 in the final 10 minutes of the stanza, but could not solve the veteran Finnish keeper.
Joe Tyran nearly put the visitors on the board during a late power play in the middle frame, but his attempt to put back a Jared Pike rebound rang the crossbar inside of two minutes left before the second intermission.
Minot put the game on ice in the third, striking 5:47 into the period as Mohs swung home a Casey Johnson rebound for his second of the night before goals in a 15-second span by John Snodgrass and James Mathias gave the contest its eventual final count of 5-0.
Tolvanen needed a mere 17 saves—including just four in the third period—to secure his third shutout of 2014-15. Bitsakis made 18 stops but slipped to 12-6-1 on the season, with half of his regulation defeats coming at the hands of the Tauros.
The Bobcats will not have long to dwell on Friday’s slip-up, however; the black and gold will wrap up their pre-Christmas schedule with a 7:15pm Saturday tilt at the Odde Ice Center against the archrival Aberdeen Wings, who ended their seven-game losing skid Friday at Brookings.
Live coverage of round six of the Titan Machinery Dakota Cup will begin at 6:45pm locally on SuperTalk 1270, KLXX-AM, the radio home of Bobcat Hockey, and worldwide online at NAHL.FASTHockey.com, the official web television partner of the North American Hockey League.
Though the 2014-15 season is now under way, there is still time to order season tickets for the year; fans who want to lock in their seats for the entire campaign should call the Bobcat office at 222-3300 today!
