St. Cloud, MN- The North Iowa Bulls completed their first two-game weekend sweep of calendar year 2026 behind a commanding performance against the St. Cloud Norsemen on Saturday night.
The Bulls authored the most complete period of the season in the game’s opening 20 minutes. Assistant Captain Denis Hodas opened the scoring 7:30 into the game with his 10th goal of the season. The second year Bull became the 5th player on the team to reach double digit goals this season.
North Iowa kept up the pressure with a four goal outburst in a stretch of 4 minutes and 47 seconds late in the opening stanza that served a clear message to the Norsemen. Denis Kuzmenkov went first with his 13th goal. Andrej Tomasec paid off a chance set up by his countrymen (Hodas & Ivan Bercik) and chased St. Cloud’s starting goaltender Trenton Peterson after just 2 saves on 5 shots faced.
Beck Liden entered the game and fared not much better. Bulls Captain Mike Malatino potted two goals almost immediately thereafter to end the first period with the Bulls up 5-0.
The night was Malatino’s 3rd multi-goal game of the season and increased his yearly total to 17, 2nd most on the team behind only Fuji Suzuki.
North Iowa kept up the pressure in the second period with the team’s 10th shorthanded goal, set up by Denis Hodas and finished by rookie forward Jack Holland, who netted goals in both games in the weekend series. The 10 shorthanded goals extends a record for the team as the most in a NAHL season for the Bulls. North Iowa is one of just 4 teams in the NAHL (Northeast Generals/Minnesota Wilderness- 10, Austin Bruins= 14) who have cleared the double digit mark in shorthanded tallies.
St. Cloud chipped away at the lead and got on the scoresheet with a power play goal by defenseman Gabe Gallivan on a power play with 4:36 left in the 2nd period. Then with just 7 seconds to play in the frame, former Mason City Toros forward Nolan Smith set up Vinny Hart for a goal that made the score 6-2 entering the second intermission.
That stayed the game’s final score as neither team could beat the other’s goaltender in the final 20 minutes of play. Charlie Durkin stopped 31 of 33 shots, tying his career high in saves for his young NAHL career. Beck Liden stopped 19 of 22 shots in a relief appearance.
Three Bulls skaters notched multi-point nights. Malatino potted two goals, Andrej Tomasec scored a goal and an assist, and Denis Hodas led the way with a goal and two assists for three points.
North Iowa improves to 17-17-1-3 on the season. The Bulls begin a 3 game series on Thursday, February 5th against the Minnesota Mallards at the Mason City Arena. Puck drops at 7:10 PM.