Austin Bruins even NAHL Central Division playoff series with St. Cloud 1-1 with 6-1 win Saturday night

Coming off of a tough, 4-3 overtime loss to the St. Cloud Norsemen in their NAHL Central Division Finals series at Riverside Arena Friday evening, the Austin Bruins were looking to square the series at one apiece in Game 2 Saturday evening, and in front of a raucous crowd of 1,672, Walter Zacher and James Goffredo each scored two goals in a 6-1 Bruins win.

Zacher got the Bruins out to the start they were looking for with his fifth goal of the playoffs only :56 seconds into the contest, with assists Gavin Morrissey, his seventh of the post-season and to Matys Brassard, his second.  Goffredo’s second of the playoffs at 17:44 of the first period made the score 2-0 Bruins after one, with assists to Austin Salani, his second of the playoffs and to Damon Furseth, his second as well.

Goffredo struck only 1:14 into the second period to make the score 3-0 in favor of Austin, with assists to Dylan Cook, his third of the postseason and to Zacher, his third.  Zacher then picked up his third point of the game, and his sixth goal of the playoffs at 14:52 of the period to make the score 4-0 Bruins, with assists to Josh Giuliani, his third of the playoffs and to Cook, his fourth of the playoffs and second of the game.

St. Cloud’s Tyler Dysart broke the goose egg on the scoreboard for the Norsemen with a power-play goal at 9:51 of the third period to cut Austin’s lead to 4-1, but with St. Cloud goaltender Tomas Bolo pulled for the sixth attacker, Josh Giuliani put the puck into the empty net for his second postseason goal and a 5-1 Bruins lead, and a power-play goal for Ocean Wallace at 18:31 of the period, with an assist to Parker Anderson accounted for the 6-1 final.

Trent Wiemken was again strong between the pipes for Austin to earn the win in net, turning away 17 of the 18 shots he faced, while Ethan Dahlmeier played the first period for St. Cloud and turned away 6 of the 8 shots he faced before giving way to Bolo for the final two periods, and he faced 19 shots and made 16 saves.  The Bruins were whistled for five penalties for 10 minutes, while St. Cloud was called for six penalties for 12 minutes.  Austin was 1 for 6 on the power play, while the Norsemen were 1 for 5.

The series now shifts to the Municipal Athletic Complex in St. Cloud for Games 3 and 4 next Friday and Saturday, with face-off scheduled for 7 p.m. both nights.  If the series needs a deciding Game 5, that would be played back at Riverside Arena Sunday evening, with face-off at 5:05 p.m.