For the first time in five years, and first time in St. Cloud, the Norsemen have clinched a playoff spot with a 3-2 victory over the Bismarck Bobcats on the road Friday night.
St. Cloud Cathedral grad Blake Perbix (Princeton, MN//Northern Michigan) scored the game-winning goal on a power play early in the third period and grabbed an assist en route to the Norsemen playoff clinching win. Rookie and North Dakota native Kade Peterson (Fargo, ND) scored the other two goals, his first multi-goal game of the season. Defensemen Nick Young (Raleigh, NC) tallied two assists including the shot for the game-tying goal.
Bismarck took the first lead of the game in the opening period on a power play goal by Jake McLean. The Bobcats jumped ahead 2-0, with a Calvin Hanson goal at 1:01 of the second.
St. Cloud struck back at 8:11 of the second with Peterson’s first goal of the game, with assists going to Young and defenseman Chris Lynch. With the clock winding down in the second, Young dialed up a one-timer off a feed from Perbix and Peterson deflected it past Oskar Spinnars-Nordin to tie the game 2-2 with just 14 seconds left on the clock.
Perbix scored the go-ahead goal less than two minutes into the third on a Norsemen power play, assisted by Ryan O’Neill (Roseville, MN // Univ. of St. Thomas) and Evan Murr (Stillwater, MN // Minnesota State).
Norsemen goaltender Tomas Bolo (Zilina, Slovakia) brings his record to 23-7-1-0 making 21 saves in the win.
St. Cloud is now 33-15-2-1 and is back the ice on Saturday night at 7:15 p.m. at the VFW Sports Center in Bismarck. Watch live on HockeyTV.
The Norsemen are back on home ice on Friday, April 1 for a 7:00 p.m. puck drop against the North Iowa Bulls, the lone home game in a four games in five days stretch for St. Cloud, who visits North Iowa on Wednesday, March 30 at 6:30 p.m., at Austin on Saturday, April 2, and finally heading to Janesville, Wisc. to face the Jets on Sunday, April 3 at 2:00 p.m.
Get your tickets for Norsemen home games online at tickets.stcloudnorsemen.com and join us at the St. Cloud Municipal Athletic Complex next Friday, April 1 for an exciting night of Norsemen Hockey!
