The Austin Bruins were up and at it for an early start, but they couldn’t finish the morning with a win as they lost 3-2 to the Brookings Blizzard in the first annual Healthy Habits game in Riverside Arena Wednesday.
Austin (13-11-2-2 overall) looked like it had the momentum in the second period when Jan Stefka scored his second goal of the game to tie things up at 2-2, but just 34 seconds later, Nicholas Cardelli broke free and buried the puck to put the Blizzard (16-1-1 overall) up 3-2. Neither team would score again.

“It’s always hard when the momentum shifts in a game,” said Austin forward AJ Drobot. “It’s just like in life. Some things don’t go your way and it happened today for us. We didn’t get the two points and the win, but we’re glad to be a good example for the kids.”
The game had a 10 a.m. start time and the crowd was filled with local students in grades five through eight. There was a presentation on healthy habits and an anti-bullying video shown on the jumbotron.
The Bruins stay active in the community by visiting schools on a regular basis and Drobot said it’s important for the players to be good role models.
“We want to stress healthy habits,” Drobot said. “Us as athletes need to eat well and we need to present ourselves well. Going to the schools is special and it’s nice to go back to have a positive influence on the kids.”

Bruins co-owner Mike Cooper said the team picked up the idea of having a Wednesday morning game with students in the crowd from Brookings. He liked the community reaction to the game and he was pleased with how it went.
“We’re always looking for new ways to get involved in the community and we got some great feedback from the schools,” Cooper said. “This is great and I think it would be hard for us to get any more people in here. It’s a great way to introduce some people to Bruins hockey who have maybe never seen a game before.”
Alex Schilling had 33 saves in net for Austin.
SCORING SUMMARY
Brookings 1 2 0  –  3
Austin  1 1 0  –  2
First period
(B) Nicholas Cardelli (Cameron Teamor, Taylor Schneider) 4:00
(A) Jan Stefka (John Wojciechowski, Jaden Schields) 11:21
Second period
(B) Derek Hammer (Brandon Kruse, Tim Faulkner) 4:00
(A) Jan Stefka (Michael Piehler) (power play) 13:08
(B) Cardelli (Taylor Schneider, Parker Revering) 13:42
Third period
No scoring
Shots: Austin – 33; Brookings – 36
Power plays: Austin – 1-for-7; Brookings 0-for-4