Bismarck, ND. With the Bobcats on the precipice of getting win number 13, luck wasn’t a factor. Coach Sedevie had two choices for goalie he could have called into action on Saturday. He could have gone with Tommy Burke but instead he chose Bismarck Century product Aaron Nelson, who for a good part of the night was holding Canada scoreless at their game. The final score was Bismarck 5, Dawson Creek 1. I thought Aaron Nelson clearly deserved a better fate. Generaly, when you only allow one goal, that will land you one star, but Aaron didn’t even get mentioned in the Hardees three stars of the game. Canada claims to know a lot about hockey, but for the second straight weekend, it was clearly the Bobcats who outplayed and outmuscled Dawson Creek at their own game. The VFW Sports Center is definitely starting to feel like a force to be reckoned with in the North American Hockey League, because it is starting to remind me of a facility 419 miles to the west, the Metra, where the former Billings Bulls used to roam. When any team has to play Layne Sedevie’s crew on any given night, you better be ready for a 60 minute war. This can be attributed to two things. Great coaching, and Healthways Gym, where the Bobcats work out. The more I see of the 2011 Bobcats, they remind me of Bismarck’s early days, when the Bobcats used to struggle with Billings, when the Bulls were the dominant team in the league.

Aberdeen, SD. After being given a 1-0 lead on a Castan Sommer goal, Tommy Burke inexplicably gave the Aberdeen Wings a 4-1 lead. But Coach Sedevie yanked Burke and put in the young goalie Aaron Nelson. Nelson quickly showed that he could be cool under pressure by coming in in one of the toughest situations in the NAHL – a shootout. John Furgele scored the eventual game winner to give the Bobcats a 6-5 win and make them an 11 and 3 team with Austin coming to town next week. The Bobcats are a clear threat to unseat the Fairbanks Ice Dogs and Robertson Cup kings. The Bobcats look like a clear favorite to reclaim what was once theirs.