Bruins will take on Topeka in Robertson Cup semis

Published 6:50 pm Wednesday, April 30, 2014

The Austin Bruins have always talked about wanting to get to the Robertson Cup and now that they’ve made it, they’re hoping to make it count.

Austin will play a Robertson Cup three-game semifinal series at Topeka, Kansas as they take on the Topeka Roadrunners this weekend. The games will be Friday and Saturday at 7:05 p.m. and game three will be Sunday at 7:05 p.m. if it is necessary.

The three-game format puts immense pressure on both teams to take game one.

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“There’s not a lot of time to regroup and it’s not like we’ll be able to go into practice and fix things,” Austin head coach Chris Tok said. “If you win that first game, you don’t have to worry about responding.”

Topeka has home ice advantage because it finished with 84 points in the regular season, while the Bruins tallied 81 points. The Roadrunners haven’t played in the Robertson Cup since the 2007-2008 season and this Austin’s first Robertson Cup appearance in its fourth year of the franchise’s existence.

Tok has watched some tape of the Roadrunners and he said Austin will have to work hard to score on Topeka goalie PJ Bridges, who is 26-5-3 with a goals-against average of 1.54.

“They’re similar to Bismarck,” Tok said. “They have a solid goaltender and they pack it in and keep you to the outside. We’re going to have to get guys in front of the net, just like we did against [Bismarck goalie] Aaron Nelson.”

The Bruins most difficult task right now is getting back in game mode after the team celebrated its 2-1 game five win over Bismarck Monday night. Tok said the team had to be pushed a little to get going in Wednesday’s practice.

“The biggest challenge is getting them back to [focusing],” Tok said. “They were kind of going through the motions a little bit today, so we had them do a little bit of competing and some speed drills.”

The Bruins were ecstatic after they knocked off the Bobcats, but they’re hoping they’re not done winning yet. Tok would like to see his team finish what they started.

“From the beginning of the season our number one goal was to make the playoffs, then we wanted to win the division title. The ultimate goal is to win the Robertson Cup,” Tok said. “We’ve been knocking over the dominoes to get to the Robertson Cup and now its starting us right in the face. We’ve got to win four games to get it.”

In the other semifinal, the top-seeded Fairbanks Icedogs are hosting the Michigan Warriors.