North Iowa had beaten Bismarck 17 times in a row heading into this weekend's series against the Bobcats, yet it was the Outlaws who played like they had something to prove.

By completing a two-game sweep of the Bobcats with a 5-2 win Saturday, the defending division champs extended their streak against Bismarck to 19.

In the process, the young Outlaws feel they staked a claim to still being the team to beat in the Central.

"We wanted to make a little statement to the rest of the division that North Iowa's for real," coach Jeff Crouse said.

North Iowa (4-3-0) has owned Bismarck dating back to the 2005-06 season, but the Bobcats dismissed that long stretch of futility and focused on what went wrong on Saturday.

Specifically, two bad line changes that let directly to two North Iowa goals had Bobcats coach Byron Pool frustrated.

"It hasn't been the first time this year we've gotten caught in a bad change, and maybe before our goaltender's bailed us out,"Pool said. "We've had five or six too many men on the ice penalties.

"To me, that tells me we're not ready."

North Iowa jumped ahead early, Joe Harren scoring off his own rebound at 2:24 of the first.

It didn't take long for the Bobcats to answer.

Just as a Bismarck power play was expiring, Bryan Kozlowski fed Jason Fabian, who cranked up a slapshot and blew it past North Iowa goalie Thomas Callaghan at 6:53 of the first period.

The Bobcats grabbed the lead at 6:09 of the second on a power-play goal by Tony Turgeon. Turgeon fired a shot from the left point, and the puck appeared eventually to go in off the stick of an Outlaw defender.

That was as good as it would get for Bismarck.

North Iowa regained the advantage with two goals late in the period. The first was scored when Derek Donohue popped in a rebound of a Travis Baker shot.

Then just 87 seconds later Alex Carlson fired one over Bosner's right shoulder for a power-play goal, making it 3-2 with 2:59 to play in the second.

"Up until that second goal, I thought we were outplaying them," Pool said.

Brandon Brodhag gave the Outlaws some breathing room after converting a feed from Kurt Weston at 5:52 of the third.

"You give Alex and Brandon Brodhag opportunities, and they're going to bury it," Crouse said.

The Outlaws put away the game with an empty-netter from Harren.

"Right now we need leaders,"Pool said. "We need somebody who's going to step up. Maybe it should have been me.

"But we've got guys on our team who have been around and should know what to do. We need someone to take charge."

North Iowa 1 2 2 - 5

Bobcats 1 1 0 - 2

First period: 1. NI, Joe Harren 1 (unassisted), 2:24. 2. B, Jason Fabian 2 (Bryan Kozlowski), 6:53. Penalties: NI, Bryce Wilcox (tripping), 4:50. NI, Ryan Peltoma (hooking), 17:35.

Second period: 3. B, Tony Turgeon 1 (unassisted), 6:29 (pp). 4. NI, Derek Donohue 4 (Travis Baker), 15:34. 5. NI, Alex Carlson 3 (Jon Crouse), 17:01 (pp). Penalties: NI, Matt Leer (interference), 4:52. B, Alex Olson (hooking), 16:15.

Third period: 6. NI, Brandon Brodhag 4 (Kurt Weston, Travis Peckskamp), 5:52. 7. NI, Harren 2 (unassisted), 18:43 (en). Penalties: B, Casey Kleisinger (tripping), 14:29.

Goalie saves: NI - Thomas Callaghan 13-7-8-28. B - David Bosner 6-14-11-31.

Penalties: NI 3 minors; B 2 minors.

Records: North Iowa 4-3-0; Bismarck 3-4-1.