Goals were hard to come by for the Aberdeen Wings Saturday night.

St. Cloud scored twice in the first two minutes of the second period and held on for a 2-0 victory in the opening round of the NAHL hockey playoffs at the Odde Ice Center.

The teams entered the second period scoreless before St. Cloud’s Daniels Murnieks scored two goals, putting the Norsemen up 2-0. The first goal came just 1:13 into the period, while the second goal came just 29 seconds later.

Wings assistant coach Zach Stepan said that the game changed quickly for both teams early in the second period.

“A misread on the defensive side gives them that two-on-one and it’s a goal-scorer shot right above the pad and below the glove,” Stepan said. “Then you send out your guys to go settle things down and they pop another one, and so that’s on us. I mean, there’s no other way around it.”

The goals came after a scoreless first period in which both teams came out with strong defensive efforts, something Stepan was proud to see from the Wings.

“It was a pretty lockdown period,” Stepan said. “I think shots ended up like 6 to 7 or something, so both teams are playing good defense that way when you see something like that.”

During the last 1:29 of the first period, St. Cloud held a 5-on-3 player advantage due to penalties on the Wings. However, the Wings held their own, not giving up a goal for the remainder of the period.

“It showed guys in the locker room want to win. We did a good job with that,” Stepan said. “Our captain blocks a big shot and was playing on a bum ankle the rest of the way, so I thought the guys did a good job with that.”

The Wings struggled throughout the contest to get pucks into the net, in large part due to St. Cloud’s strong defensive efforts and schemes. Stepan credited the Norsemen’s strategy as a big key to the game.

“When you get down in the playoffs, teams tend to shrink the defensive zone and pack it in, and that’s exactly what St. Cloud did, and they did a good job, and you’ve gotta give credit to them,” Stepan said. “They found ways to get quick goals in both games and then they locked it down. It made it hard for us to get pucks to their goalie. When we did get pucks, their goalie stood tall for them.”

The Wings now head to St. Cloud, where the Norsemen hold a 2-0 advantage in the series, as well as a home-ice advantage next weekend. Stepan said the team needs to be mentally prepared for next weekend.

“I don’t think there’s a ton of adjustments other than just mentally,” Stepan said. “I think last night we maybe thought it was gonna be a little too easy, and then all of a sudden, we’re climbing up hill. I’ll give credit to our guys, when push came to shove, we were finding ways to get opportunities both nights. Every time you touch the ice you’ve gotta be ready to go, and not being ready for any of those periods loses hockey games.”

To see a complete box score, click on the following link:

https://www.aberdeenwings.com/stats/game-center/38920