Bruins Out-Trick Magicians 5-1
Published on December 20, 2013 under North American Hockey League (NAHL)
Austin Bruins News Release
The Austin Bruins (19-10-1)--and their fans--showed up in full force Friday night in a dominating 5-1 victory over the Minnesota Magicians (12-12-6) at the Richfield Ice Arena in Richfield, MN. It was the first ever regular season game between the Bruins and expansion Magicians, who met twice in the preseason in the weeks leading up to the NAHL Showcase.
The Magicians scored first after winning a corner battle in the Bruins zone. Joe Kleven (Prior Lake, MN) fed a perfect backdoor pass to Mario Bianchi (Bloomington, MN), who lifted the shot past Austin goalie Nick Lehr (Roseville, MN) to make it 1-0 at 7:45 of the first period. The Bruins found the equalizer on the power-play just after the halfway point of the frame, when Lucas Kohls (Forest Lake, MN) beat Magicians goaltender Bryan Nies (Grand Forks, ND) on a shot from the point through traffic. Then after a neutral zone takeaway, Drew Anderson (Rochester, MN) found Sam Kauppila (Gurnee, IL) cutting to the net behind the defense, and Kauppila slid the puck past Nies to give the Bruins a 2-1 lead at the first intermission.
Austin continued to pepper the Magicians goaltender with shots in the second, scoring the only goal of the period on a Kauppila deflection from a Luke Dietsch (St. Paul, MN) shot at 12:35. Josh Bretner (N. Potomac, MD) nearly made it 4-1 on a short-handed breakaway, but Nies robbed him with the glove.
Dietsch scored the fourth Bruins goal at 10:54 of the third period, after Anderson tapped the puck onto Dietsch s stick from the slot and Dietsch fooled Nies to put the game out of reach. 26 seconds later, Bruins defenseman Kody Reuter (Sioux City, IA) scored his first goal of the season on a wrist shot from the point that found its way into the top shelf.
Austin heavily outshot the Magicians 48-31, as Nick Lehr stopped 30 shots for his league-leading 17th win of the season and the Bruins were a perfect 6/6 on the penalty kill.
Saturday, the Bruins return home to host the Minnesota Wilderness at 7:05pm at Riverside Arena. It will be the final game before a ten day break over Christmas. The game will be aired on fasthockey.com and also on 1480AM KAUS.
North American Hockey League Stories from December 20, 2013
- Bobcats win 5-4 - Bismarck Bobcats
- Staub's Shorty Sends Wildcats to Win over Amarillo - Wichita Falls Wildcats
- Wings Fall to Bismarck, 5-4 - Aberdeen Wings
- Wild Loses At Minot - Wenatchee Wild
- Bruins Out-Trick Magicians 5-1 - Austin Bruins
- IceRays Down Killer Bees 2-1 in Fight-Filled Game - Corpus Christi IceRays
- Tomahawks Fall to Warriors 4-1 in Physical Game - Johnstown Tomahawks
- Wild Weekend - Minot Minotauros
- Wings Take on Bismarck Tonight - Aberdeen Wings
The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
