For the second straight night, the Aberdeen Wings outskated and outshot St. Cloud. And for the second straight night, the Wings walked away with a frustrating setback.

Aberdeen dominated play for first two periods, but failed to score before Norsemen eventually took control in the final 10 minutes on the way to a 5-1 NAHL hockey victory at the Odde Ice Center Saturday night.

“I want to say bounces didn’t go our way, but we also didn’t create enough, obviously,” said Aberdeen’s Cooper Anderson. “I think we have to find a way this week to get our offense going. I think we did well defensively for the most part. It was a one-goal game up until 10 minutes left and then we give up four.”

After St. Cloud scored on a power play in the first period, the Wings controlled play racking up one shot attempt after another. Aberdeen owned a 29-13 shots on goal advantage after two periods, but failed to put one past Norsemen goalie Beck Liden.

“We had a lot of shots, but I think we had to have way more traffic in front of the net that made his life way harder than what we did,” said Aberdeen’s Matthew Martin. “If you shoot, but there’s no one in front of him, he’s just going to save it like he did. That’s on us.”

St. Cloud added another goal before the Wings got on the board when Martin scored off his own rebound.

“I had a lot a lot of speed,” Martin said. “I know I’m big and I just need to use my body and that’s what I did. I took my own rebound.”

However, whatever momentum Aberdeen generated quickly evaported as St. Cloud scored just eight seconds later off a Wings turnover.

“Turnover hurts you especially at your own blue line,” said Wings coach Scott Langer. “We had three chances to get it out and instead it goes in the back of the net. It’s a 60-minute game. We did two periods of nothing in my mind.”

Once St. Cloud regained its two-goal advantage, the visitors tacked on two more goals for the final margin of difference.

Aberdeen had 40 shots in the contest, but managed just one goal.

“Scoring goals is hard at any level. It takes a willingness. It takes some grit,” Langer said. (Liden) definitely was helped a little bit by our quality of shots. … He was the first star of the game without a doubt. He kept them in it the whole time and gave those guys the ability at the end to score some goals.”

The lack of offensive production was frustrating for the Wings, considering they played nearly the entire second period in the St. Cloud zone when they outshot the Norsemen 20-6. St. Cloud consistently iced the puck just to clear its zone and was unable to mount much of an offensive threat.

“Especially the second period. They didn’t even enter our zone, I don’t think,” Anderson said. “We were just thinking it’s coming, it’s coming and it just never did. And then we get the one and we give it right back. I think that’s the one that kind of broke us.”

Langer said that scoring takes more than just attempting shots.

“If you don’t score in the playoffs, you’re not going through the rounds,” Langer said. “You better figure out how to score. Scoring is a mentality. It’s just not throwing the puck on net.”

Aberdeen closes out the regular season with two games at Minot and a home and away against Watertown before the playoffs begin.

After winning five straight games, the Wings have now dropped a pair. When asked how to turn things around, Martin responded, “Just play our game and sweep both weekends before playoffs and I think it’s going to be perfect. I think we’re going to be ready to play against whoever we’re going to play against.”

The Wings will face either Bismarck or Austin in the upcoming playoffs. While getting swept at home was not what they wanted, the players still believe in their ability to be a tough out in the postseason.

“I don’t really want to say we lost confidence. We still know what type of team we are,” Anderson said. “We’re going to play Bizo or Austin, obviously. We have (won) five in a row against Bismarck and we took three out of the last four against Austin, so I think we’re still really confident heading into the playoffs.”

Now, the Wings just want to finish the regular season strong the next two weeks.

“We want to make sure that we’re playing good hockey,” Langer said. “We’ll go back to basics this week and get back to where we need to be focused at. Hopefully that carries into the playoffs.”

To see a complete box score, click on the following link:

https://www.aberdeenwings.com/game-center/?game_id=2404679&season_id=11108