Bruins complete sweep of Steel Saturday night 4-3

Carson Riddle’s second goal of the weekend proved to be the game-winner for the Austin Bruins who knocked-off the Chippewa Steel 4-3 on Saturday.

Despite playing in their third game in as many nights, the Chippewa Steel managed to snag the game’s first lead midway through the opening period when Banks Burkhardt beat Bruins goalie Brett Miller for the 1-0 Chippewa lead. It only took a little over three minutes for the Bruins to respond when Travis Shoudy ripped a wrist-shot over the shoulder of Trent Burnham evening the score at 1-1. For Shoudy, the goal marked his first NAHL tally. Austin concluded the first period with yet another last-minute goal, this time it was Josef Mysak who slammed home a loose puck while on the power-play and sending the teams to the locker room up 2-1.

In the second period, the scoring opened up and so did the penalty boxes. Each team was assessed three penalties in the middle frame and ultimately it led to three consecutive power-play goals. The Steel started things off when Jacob Dirks blasted a shot from the left circle for the game-leveling goal making it 2-2. Not to be outdone, Hugh Larkin scored his team leading ninth power-play goal with a shot that just barely slipped through Burnham earning the Bruins their one-goal lead back, 3-2. The ever-battling Chippewa Steel would round out the power-play goals and round out the score to 3-3 with a marker from Gordon Whalen with just under eight minutes left in the frame. After scoring the Bruins first goal on Friday night, Carson Riddle scored Saturday’s game-winner with just over five minutes left in the second, his eleventh of the year.

As the second came to a close, the Bruins and Brett Miller clamped down in the third keeping the Steel off the scoresheet, including fighting off a two-and-a-half minute extra attacker scenario for the Steel, earning the 4-3 victory. Dante Sheriff, Jed Pietila, and Carson Riddle all registered multiple points for the Bruins while Brett Miller earned his 20th win of the season. With the victory, the Bruins improved to 28-16-2-5 while the Steel dropped to 29-18-3-1.

The Bruins are back on home ice this coming weekend as they welcome the Minot Minotauros to town for games on Friday, March 13 and Saturday, March 14.