In a game where neither team could get a cushion, the Bismarck Bobcats escaped with a 3-2 victory over the Wenatchee Wild.

No lead was more than one goal during the contest, and the winning goal was scored by Stanislav Dzakhov at 18:55 of the third period.

The win gave Bismarck a 1-0 lead in the best of one series.

The Bobcats were paced by Dzakhov, who tallied one goal.

Joe Giordano also scored for Bismarck. In addition, Bismarck received assists from Seth Blair, Chris Diver, Nate Repensky, and Filip Starzynski, who each chipped in one.

Wenatchee put up an impenetrable defensive front on the penalty kill, and did not allow Bismarck to score on any of its three power plays.

The Wild were helped by Dylan Abood, who finished with one goal. Abood scored 3:58 into the first period to make the score 1-1. Chris Kerr picked up the assist. Wenatchee also got a goal from Evan Schmidbauer as well. More assists for Wenatchee came via Chris Jones and Joshua Hartley, who contributed one a piece.

Aaron Nelson rejected 23 shots on goal for the Bobcats. Bismarck incurred six minutes in penalty time with three minors. Robert Nichols recorded 18 saves for Wenatchee. The Wild incurred eight minutes in penalty time with four minors.