When Alex Mella missed out on a chance to score a big-time playoff goal, he didn’t sulk; he kept hustling and it paid off. Just three-minutes after Mella missed on a wide open look, he came through with a put-back goal to put the Austin Bruins up 2-0 in what eventually became a 2-1 win for the Bruins over the Minnesota Wilderness in the first round of the NAHL Central Division semifinals.

Mella, a native of Stamford, Connecticut who has committed to Northeastern University, found the net with 14:26 left in the second period.

“I just had to stick with it and keep on going. I missed an empty net, but you’ve got to put your hands on the wheel and one will pop in eventually,” Mella said. “[The Wilderness] came on strong, but we knew this was coming and we’d been working on it all week long. We stuck with the game-plan. Everything out here is magnified by one hundred and you’ve got to go your hardest.”

Austin peppered out 36 shots in the win, but the Wilderness made a late charge in the third period. Ondrej Trejbal connected on a slap shot from a couple of feet in front of the blue line to cut Austin’s lead to 2-1, but the Bruins were able to stave off the late Wilderness push.

“We were playing a smart game, playing guys back,” Austin head coach Steve Howard said. “At that point we weren’t trying to score goals. We were making sure they wouldn’t get any odd man rushes or anything. They found the back of the net once, but that’s playoff hockey and when you have a lead, you’ve got to be accountable on the ice and be willing to block shots.”

Alex Schilling stopped 20 of the 21 shots he saw for Austin and he made a big save on a one-on-one breakaway in the second period.

Austin defenseman Dan Petrick said the intensity of the playoffs brought back memories of the ‘Paint the Pink’ game, which was a sellout.

“It kind of felt like it was pink night again when we had so many fans here that night. It was probably just as loud tonight and it was a great environment. The town always comes out and supports us,” Petrick said. “We just had to make sure we contained [the Wilderness] and for the most part we did. That goal kind of took the wind out of our sails, but we played good hockey after that.”

Austin took an early 1-0 lead when Valdemar Ahlberg scored with 5:26 left in the first period.

Austin now has a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five series and it will host the Wilderness again in Riverside Arena 7:05 p.m. Saturday. Games three and four are scheduled to be played in Cloquet April 20 and April 21.

“That’s just one game, we’ve got to come back tomorrow and follow it up. I think guys’ nerves were probably taking over a little bit of the game early on,” Howard said. “With them getting settled in and feeling it, will make it even better tomorrow.”

SCORING SUMMARY

Wilderness 0 0 1  —  1

Austin 1 1 0  —  2

First period

(A) Valdemar Ahlberg (Lane Krenzen) 14:34

Second period

(A) Alex Mella (Josef Mysak, Dante Zapata) 5:35

Third period

(M) Ondrej Trejbal (Eric Gotz, Edward Lindelow) 12:51

Shots: Austin — 36; Wilderness — 21

Power plays: Austin — 0-for-1; Wilderness — 0-for-1