Austin Bruins finish sweep of rival Aberdeen, stay tied for second in NAHL Central

Mar. 16—AUSTIN — A five-goals-per-game average will result in a lot of wins during a hockey season.

It's resulted in three consecutive wins on three consecutive days for the Austin Bruins.

The Bruins polished off a sweep of a two-game weekend series at Riverside Arena on Saturday night, beating North American Hockey League Central Division rival Aberdeen 5-1 for a third straight win. In that span, Austin has scored 15 total goals — four in a 4-1 win at the Minnesota Mallards on Thursday, six in Friday's 6-4 win against Aberdeen, and five more on Saturday.

Austin capped its impressive three-wins-in-three-days run by taking control of Saturday's game early and not letting up.

Standout forward Luc Malkhassian scored 1:48 into the game, and Austin led the rest of the way. Malkhassian added his second of the night — and 24th of the season — with 30 seconds to go in the first period, giving the Bruins a 2-0 lead after one period.

Austin scored the only two goals of the second period, as well, to all but put the game away after 40 minutes.

Nathan Williams scored his sixth of the year 7:41 into the period, then he assisted a Gavin Hruza goal with 2:52 to play in the second, to give Austin a commanding 4-0 lead.

Aberdeen spoiled Austin's shutout bid when Bryce Johnson scored 8:18 into the third, but the Bruins answered four minutes later when Emil Samuelsson scored his eighth goal of the season, to push the lead to 5-1.

Carl Axelsson got the nod in goal for Austin and was outstanding for 60 minutes. Axelsson stopped an astounding 51 shots in the game, including a whopping 22 in the third period alone, when Aberdeen outshot the Bruins 23-7.

Axelsson, a Minnesota Duluth commit, made his second start of the week — he also earned the win Thursday, when he needed to stop just nine shots in the 4-1 win against the Minnesota Mallards. For the week, though, Axelsson stopped an impressive 60 of 62 shots.

The win keeps the Bruins (36-10-5, 77 points) in a tie for second place in the NAHL Central, along with the Minot (N.D.) Minotauros. They are just three points back of division-leading Bismarck; all three of those teams have nine regular-season games remaining.

Austin continues its stretch run next Friday and Saturday, March 21 and 22, with a key two-game home series against Minot. Both games are set for 7:05 p.m. starts at Riverside Arena.

BOX SCORE: Austin Bruins 5, Aberdeen Wings 1

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