The No. 2 seeded Austin Bruins couldn’t match the intensity of the No. 4 seeded Minot Minotauros as Minot controlled the third period to beat the Bruins 4-1 in game one of the NAHL Central Division semifinals in Riverside Arena Friday.

Minot took a 2-1 lead when Keenan Lund scored on transition with 9:18 left in the second period, just three minutes after Austin had tied the game on a put-back goal by Travis Kothenbeutel.

“They imposed their will, they executed and we didn’t,” Austin head coach Steve Howard said. “The bottom line is our guys have got to be better tomorrow; we weren’t that good tonight. I thought the first period was us feeling each other out. Taking a penalty at the end of the first period hurt us.”

Minot went up 3-1 when Grant Love scored with 13:09 left in the game and the Minotauros iced the game when Alex Adams connected on an empty-netter with 2:37 left in the game.

Austin was coming off of five days of rest, while Minot had just three days to prepare for the game after they beat Aberdeen in a game five. Now, Austin will have to bring its best in game two in Riverside at 7:05 p.m. Saturday as games three and four are scheduled to be played in Minot.

“Hopefully the guys come out and play with our pace and our structure and we impose our will on them,” Howard said. “I don’t think we need to say much other than that our season’s on the line. If we go to Minot down two, it’s not going to be good.”

Alex Schilling stopped 18 of the 21 shots he saw in net for the Bruins.

SCORING SUMMARY

Minot 0  2  2  —  4

Austin 0  1  0  —  1

First period

No scoring

Second period

(M) Austin Koss (Michael Talbot, Keenan Lund) 1:37

(A) Travis Kothenbeutel (Evan Cholak, Riley Doyon) 7:24

(M) Keenan Lund (Brian Adams) 10:20

Third period

(M) Grant Love (Miroslav Mucha, Connor McGinnis) 6:52

(M) Alex Adams (McGinnis, Jake Rosenbaum) (empty net) 17:24

Shots: Austin — 24; Minot — 22

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