Bobcats Prepare for Aberdeen Home-and-Home
BISMARCK, ND — As the standings in the North American Hockey League’s Central Division continue to tighten at the top, the Bismarck Bobcats look to keep pace when they take on the Aberdeen Wings in a home-and-home series starting Friday at the VFW Sports Center.
Fresh off a 1-0-1 weekend against Minot, the Bobcats are hungry to keep climbing the Central Division standings by making important adjustments from Saturday’s 3-2 overtime defeat.
“Right now, the big thing we need is to play a full 60 minutes,” stressed third-year veteran Mitch Walinski, who scored in Friday’s 4-0 win over the Minotauros. “Last week, we probably only played 40 good minutes in each game and that’s not good enough. If we want to get to where we know we can go, we need a full-game effort.”
The Bobcats bolstered their back line during the week, adding goaltender Atticus Kelly from Fargo of the USHL. Kelly won the Frank Brimsek Award in 2018 for the top senior goalie in Minnesota high school hockey.
Defenseman Sam Malinski is currently the top-scoring blue liner in the division with 10 points on three goals and seven assists in 10 appearances.
Like the Minot side the Cats faced the previous week, returning talent has played a big role in the Wings’ early surge in the Central Division standings.
“Aberdeen is a really talented team, with a lot of veteran players,” credited Bobcat goalie John Roberts, who committed to play Division I hockey at Northern Michigan earlier this week, “they’re going to be a really tough challenge for us defensively because of all the firepower they have.”
Coming into Friday’s game, Aberdeen has the league’s third-ranked offense, scoring 3.55 goals per game; the Wings already have three players with over 10 points on the young season: Jonathan Bendorf (6g, 9a), Joey Strada (5g, 8a) and Nic Sicoly (4g, 7a) have all cracked double digits in 11 appearances.
Both Friday’s home game and Saturday’s road contest are scheduled for 7:15pm puck drops.
Fans can buy and print tickets 24 hours a day at BismarckBobcats.com or by clicking “Shop Now” at the top of the team’s Facebook page.
Live coverage starts at 6:45pm for Friday’s home tilt on Super Talk 1270 AM, the radio home of Bobcat Hockey, and at HockeyTV.com, the official web television partner of the NAHL.
Pro-rated season tickets for the 2018-19 campaign are still available; lock in your seats for the remaining home schedule today: sign up at BismarckBobcats.com/seasontickets or call 222-3300 for more information!