The Austin Bruins moved one step closer to locking up home ice advantage in the first round of the NAHL Divisional playoffs when they beat the Minnesota Magicians (27-26-4-2 overall) 6-1 on the road Wednesday.

Valdemar Ahlberg had a hat trick as he scored his eighth and ninth goals and 10th goals of the season for Austin and Alex Schilling had 15 saves.

The win gives the Bruins (31-19-4-4 overall) 70 points on the season, putting them two points ahead of the Minnesota Wilderness with two games to go for each team. Two two teams are guaranteed to meet in the No. 2 — No. 3 matchup in the first round of the playoffs, but the home seed is at stake with two regular season games remaining for each squad.

Austin will host Bismarck on Friday and Saturday, with both games starting at 7:05 p.m.

SCORING SUMMARY

Bruins 2  2  3  —  7

Magicians 1  0  1  —  2

First period

(A) Garrett Dahm (Xander Lamppa, Andy Willis) 3:10

(A) Evan Cholak (Dante Sheriff) 13:08

(M) Jarrett Lee (Andrew Kruse, Carter Wagner) 15:06

Second period

(A) Alex Mella (Jaden Shields, Dante Sherriff) (power play) 4:41

(A) Valdemar Ahlberg (Riley Doyon, Josef Mysak) 10:02

Third period

(A) Ahlberg (Cholak) 3:43

(A) Lamp (Ian Mageau, Dahm) 11:16

(A) Ahlberg (Willis) 11:41

(M) Noah Ganske (Chris Konin) 17:42

Shots: Austin —31 ; Magicans — 17

Power plays: Austin — 1-for-4; Magicans — 0-for-2