The Albert Lea Thunder found out about life on the road Friday night when the team traveled to Bismarck.

It’s the lengthiest road trip of the season the Thunder has made for a game and the effects of the road showed in a 6-0 loss to the Bobcats at the VFW All Seasons Arena in front of a crowd of 1,076 fans.

“I think it caught up with us,” Albert Lea head coach Brad Zangs said. “We looked dead out there.”

Bismarck (14-8-1) scored four times in the third period including three power play goals and a shorthanded goal.

“It was a great game up until the wheels fell off,” Zangs said. “I say we played solid for 32 minutes.”

The game was 2-0 after the second period, but the Thunder (1-17-2) started taking penalties in the third period and Bismarck took advantage.

Albert Lea had killed three power plays, but the penalties piled up and the Thunder couldn’t hold off the Bobcats any longer. B.J. McClellan took a hooking penalty at 7 minutes, 48 seconds into the third period. Just 26 seconds later Tom Glomski was whistled for interference and 45 seconds later. With the 5-on-3 advantage Tony Turgeon buried the first of two power play goals on the night at the 8:59 mark of the third.

Turgeon took scored a power play goal just 34 seconds after Albert Lea forward John Affolter took a slashing penalty. Turgeon’s goals came 1:30 apart from each other and the Thunder were quickly down 4-0.

Bismarck wasn’t finished, though. Just as Affolter’s penalty was set to expire Albert Lea forward Chris Cass was sent to the box for hooking. The Bobcats didn’t waste any time cashing in on their third power play goal at 12:17 when Joel Lundstrom found the back of the net on an assist from Turgeon and Jeffrey Harris. Turgeon finished the night with three points as Bismarck picked up its seventh straight victory.

The Bobcats finished 3-for-9 on the power play. The Thunder were 0-for-6 and has the third worst penalty kill percentage in the league at 79 percent.

The Thunder spent nearly seven consecutive minutes down a man in the third period.

“When you’re killing off penalty after penalty it’s going to catch up to you,” Zangs said.

The game had been competitive until the third period. Albert Lea and the Bobcats skated to a scoreless first period. The Thunder outshot Bismarck 8-7 in the first, but the Bobcats started to heat up in the second.

Andrew Seeberg scored at 7:48 on an assist from Myles Harvey. Josh Nelson made the game 2-0 at 14:20 an assist from Jason Fabian. In the third Casey Kleisinger scored a shorthanded goal to make it 3-0 before the storm of goals came.

“I thought the first period was one of our better periods,” Zangs said.

The Thunder had four scoring chances in the first period, Zangs said, but failed to capitalize on any of them.

Bismarck outshot Albert Lea 33-13 and 13-0 in the third period.

Mat Rabin started in net for the Thunder and made 25 saves on 30 shots. Tom Lescovich came in and allowed one goal in seven minutes of play.

David Bosner made 13 stops in net for Bismarck.

GOAL SCORING:

1st period: (no scoring)

2nd period: Bismarck — Andrew Seeberg (Myles Harvey) 7:48

Bismarck — Josh Nelson (Jason Fabian) 14:20

3rd period: Bismarck — Casey Kleisinger (shorthanded) (unassisted) 4:26

Bismarck — Tony Turgeon (powerplay) (John Clark, Cody Keefer) 8:59

Bismarck — Tony Turgeon (powerplay) (John Wickman) 10:29

Bismarck — Joel Lundstrom (powerplay) (Tony Turgeon, Jeffrey Harris) 12:17

POWER PLAY CONVERSION: Albert Lea 0 for 6, Bismarck 3 for 9

SHOTS: 1st 2nd 3rd Total

Albert Lea 8 5 0 13

Bismarck 7 13 13 33