Bismarck Century coach Troy Olson said it took a few shifts to adjust to the pace of play against Grand Forks Red River on Monday afternoon.
Once the Patriots settled in, however, one of the top teams in the West Region continued their winning ways.
Century won its fifth consecutive game behind a three-point game from senior forward Nicholas Brown in a 4-2 win over the Roughriders at Purpur Arena.
“It’s tough to score on those guys,” Olson said. “I was proud of the guys for staying after it.”
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In a 2-2 game entering the third period, Century junior defenseman Connor Hanson scored just 16 seconds into the final period.
That score held until Red River pulled goalie Nate Bradbury (22 saves) late and Century’s Carter Schoneberg found an empty net for his second goal of the game.
The Patriots, who improved to 12-1-0, overcame two power-play goals from Red River senior forward Tyler Savage.
Savage, who now has a team-leading 14 goals this season, scored on a skilled play to tie the game at 1-1 at 9:24 of the second period when he used speed through the neutral zone to dance a falling Patriot defender and sniped a shot past Century goalie Matthew Schmidt (20 saves).
Savage scored again at 15:10 of the second period on a shot through traffic during a 5-on-3 power play.
The Riders, who dropped to 9-6, were playing a bit short-handed as the team’s fourth-leading scorer Mason Thingvold was out with an illness and a pair of other forwards were in and out of the lineup with injuries.
“We have to get better in our own zone on our own boards to get the puck out cleanly,” Red River coach Bill Chase said. “When we run into something, we need to be able to chip the puck and get it in deep. We weren’t always doing that. When we did, that’s when we had some success.”
The game was a makeup date after the matchup was postponed due to poor weather earlier this year.
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The missed game made for a long layoff for Century, Olson said.
“You do this for so long and think you’ve seen it all,” he said. “But we went a month playing just one game. The kids were sick of practicing. It was a long time off. Now, we have like 12 games in three weeks. This is the fun part of the year when you want to start playing well.”
Bismarck Century 4,
GF Red River 2
First period -- 1. BC, Nicholas Brown (Damon Dixon) 14:23
Second period -- 2. RR, Tyler Savage (Logan Huus) 9:24; 3. BC, Carter Schoneberg (Brown, Austin Wald) 12:53; 4. RR, Savage (Huus, Drew Montgomery) 15:10
Third period -- 5. BC, Connor Hanson :16; 6. BC, Schoneberg (Brown) 15:17
Goalie saves -- RR: Nate Bradbury 5-14-3 -- 22; BC: Matthew Schmidt 7-8-5 -- 20
