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The Austin Bruins used a strong second period effort to keep their season alive as they won game three of a best-of-five NAHL Central semifinal 3-1 in Minot Friday night.

The Bruins now trail the series 2-1 and they will play a must-win game four at Minot Saturday night.

The Bruins scored more goals in the second period than they had in the first two games of the series combined as EJ Paddington found the net to tie the game at 1-1 and Evan Malkhassian scored twice to put the Bruins up 3-1 going into the third.

Jack Solomon recorded 25 saves for Austin.

If Austin wins on Saturday, it will host Minot in a game five Monday night at 7:05 p.m.

SCORING SUMMARY

Austin 0 3 0   – 3

Minot 1 0 0  –  1

First period

(M) Billy Batten (Jack O’Hanisain, Jesse Juhola) 2:57

Second period

(A) EJ Paddington (Luc Malkhassian) 5:32

(A) Evan Malkhassian (John Hirschfeld, Augustus Elbert) 6:41

(A) Evan Malkhassian (Elbert) 10:45

Third period

No scoring