The Aberdeen Wings finished what they started on Saturday night at the Odde Ice Center.

One night after a close setback to Bismarck, the Wings handed the Bobcats just their second defeat of the season in a 4-1 NAHL hockey win.

Friday night with the score tied in the third period, Bismarck found a way to finish off a win. This time, with the score tied in the third period, it was the Wings who finished off their foe.

“Their goaltender played really well. We created a lot of good chances, a lot of grade A chances and he did a really good job, but our game (Friday) night was really good and we lost by a bounce off a skate,” said Aberdeen coach Scott Langer. “Tonight, we didn’t have a hangover, we came back out and we played really well defensively. I thought (goalie Willum) Braun was solid and we got timely scoring.”

It was Cole Saterdalen who ended up scoring what turned out to be the game-winning goal on a rebound with just over eight minutes remaining in the contest.

“I think it was definitely a little right place, right time moment,” Saterdalen said.

The Wings weren’t finished though, as Cade Moxham added a breakaway goal, before Gustas Zemaitis added an empty netter on an assist by Saterdalen. Gavin Reed had a pair of assists in the victory.

Aberdeen outshot Brookings by a 47-30 margin.

The hosts seemed to be quicker to the puck throughout the contest.

“That was one of our focuses in the locker room,” Saterdalen said, “was to win our races, especially down low in their zone.”

The Wings hit the ice on a mission and set the tone from the start against the top team in the Central Division.

“We knew what we had to do to beat a team like that,” Langer said. “They have four really deep lines, their defensive core is good and obviously their goaltender is one of the tops in the league, so in order to dictate the game we had to touch the pucks first and we knew that.”

Meanwhile, Braun was stonewalling a team that has racked up one victory after another. The goalie was quick to credit his teammates for helping him out in goal.

“It was a great job honestly by my defense,” Braun said. “All the chances they had it was limited to one and done, because they were doing a great job picking off, boxing guys out, so it made my life really easy, so big credit to them.”

It was a big week for Braun who also had a shutout victory against Watertown on Wednesday.

“The last three games, especially with the shutout, I feel like I’ve kind of been feeling it the last couple of games,” Braun said.

Langer was pleased with the way his squad battled, especially missing several key members out with injury.

“We have some of our top-end guys sitting out of the lineup. It’s nice to see the development of some of these younger guys,” Langer said. “You look at (Jack) McDonough. He moved up to the top line today. He did a fantastic job. Saterdalen moved up in center. It’s only going to pay dividends once these guys get healthy and come back.”

Leonid Bulgakov scored his 19th goal of the season for the Aberdeen’s first goal.

The Wings, who play at North Iowa next weekend, are weathering the current storm and trending in the right direction, according to Braun.

“We’ve been going through some growing pains and some injuries, but we’re just battling and we’re getting better and better every day,” Braun said, “so I think we’re going in the right direction definitely and we just have to keep doing what we’re doing.”

While the Wings are in fourth place in the Central Division standings, Saturday’s victory against an elite team will give the squad some confidence as it looks to keep building momentum throughout the season.

“It’s a win that we can look at and say, look this is our new standard,” Saterdalen said, “and we’ve got to build on it from here.”

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

https://www.aberdeenwings.com/game-center/?game_id=43610