The Aberdeen Wings used a balanced team game to skate away with a dominating 9-1 exhibition win over the Bismarck Bobcats Friday night at the Odde Ice Center.
Clayton Cosentino got things going at the 9:30 mark of the first period with an assist from fellow veteran player Natan Vertes. Seamus Campbell added to the lead just over two minutes later on an unassisted shorthanded goal. Kyle Gaffney closed out the 1st period scoring for the Wings with Aidan Curran and Marshall Walker assisting.
Bismarck would get on the board late in the 1st with an unassisted goal from Dalton Wright.
The second period was more of the same for the Wings. Curran started the scoring with Nico deVita assisting. Peyton Matsui got his first goal of the night at the 14:45 mark with an assist from veteran Spencer Schneider. Gaffney netted his second goal of the night late in the second period with Curran getting his second assist.
Aberdeen used special teams to close out the game in the 3rd. Nathan Mann scored a power play goal at the 12:31 mark with Vertes snagging his second assist of the game. Matsui followed that with the Wings’ second shorthanded goal of the game late in the third period with the assist coming from Schneider. With just 27 seconds remaining in the game, Thomas Manty, with an assist from Cosentino, closed out the scoring to take the 9-1 win.
Dominik Wasik was solid in the net, stopping 19 of the 20 shots he faced. Aberdeen put up 51 shots on Bismarck.
“Tonight was a good step in our training camp process,” Wings head coach Scott Langer said. “As a staff, we were able to see things develop that we worked hard on all week. We also were able to identify key pieces that need to get batter.”
Aberdeen will be back in action Saturday as they host the Minot Minotauros. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and the puck drops at 7:15 p.m. Tickets are available online at tickets.aberdeenwings.com.