The Aberdeen Wings encountered a team that played with a sense of urgency on Saturday night at the Odde Ice Center.

With its season on the line, Bismarck blitzed Aberdeen with three goals in just over 10 minutes on the way to an 8-2 victory that evened their North American Hockey League playoff series at two games apiece. Game Five is Monday night in Bismarck.

The Bobcats found the back of the net just 63 seconds into the game to set the tone for the evening. They added another goal when the puck trickled across the goal line about seven and half minutes later. The Wings never recovered.

“A couple of unfortunate goals early in the game that really got us off our game, off the glass, off a deflection and then the tap in in the back of the net,” said Aberdeen coach Scott Langer. “Basically, their backs are against the wall and they played like it.”

The visitors added a power play goal less than two minutes later and ended the period with a 3-0 lead despite having just four more shots on goal.

Bismarck continued its scoring barrage with five more goals in the second period to build an insurmountable lead.

“You can obviously blame it on a couple of tough bounces at the start of the game,” said Wings captain Riley Sharun, ” but we knew they were going to give it their best and we just couldn’t hold it.”

Tamas Toth had a pair of goals for Bismarck, which received goals from seven different players. The Bobcats have now scored 28 goals in their last four wins over Aberdeen.

When asked the best way to slow down one of the highest scoring teams in the league, Sharun responded, “I think just letting our goalie see the puck, helping him out on the stick tie ups and rebounds, just kind of let him do his thing and get into the game.”

Aberdeen scored one goal in the second period and another in the third. Simon Pollock had the first goal on assists from Nick Comfort and Isak Holmstrom. Luke Melnick put in the final goal of the contest on an assist from Bennett Koupal.

“Koupal just won a battle right by the goal line and it popped out to me,” Melnick said. “I was just pretty lucky there. It was a good spot and I put it in.”

The series will now be decided on Bismarck’s home ice, a place where the Wings won game two the last time they played there.

“We’ve had a lot of momentum building for the last half of the season,” Sharun said, “a big win up there and big win in the playoffs, so looking to get one more.”

The Wings have shown they can play with Bismarck and have a shot at winning the series on Monday.

“There’s no question. Game five should be a good one,” Langer said. “This one doesn’t mean a damn thing right now, so we’ll just get ready to play on Monday.”

The Wings will try to have a short memory as they prepare for the winner-take-all contest against Bismarck.

“It’s playoffs. It shows that we beat Bismarck two times in a row and they came here and beat us pretty good, so every game’s a new game,” Melnick said. “It doesn’t matter what happened in the past, you’ve just got to focus on the next one.”

The winner of Monday’s game will face Minot, which swept Austin in the other Central Division semifinals.

Sharun said it will take an all out effort to win the crucial fifth game.

“Obviously, it’s going to take a gutsy effort for 60 minutes, sacrificing our bodies and finding gritty ways to score,” Sharun said, “because they’re not coming easy.”

Getting off to a good start would be beneficial instead of having to play from behind against a formidable foe, according to Melnick.

“I feel like we’ve played them and they’ve scored the first goal pretty much every game,” Melnick said, “so I think getting the first one would be really good just to show like we’re here and we’re going to beat you.”

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

https://www.aberdeenwings.com/game-center/?game_id=42328