For the Bismarck Bobcats, last week's season-opening NAHL Showcase was a mixed bag.

On the plus side, the Bobcats believe they've found a No. 1 goalie in newly acquired David Bosner.

And they may have found the go-to goal scorer that was missing last season in the person of Cody Keefer, who lit the lamp four times in four games.

On the other hand, even with substantial roster turnover, the same problems that bedeviled the Bobcats last season - a weak offense and shoddy penalty killing - were in evidence at the Showcase.

The Bobcats hope to build on the former and work on the latter when they play the first home games of the season tonight and Saturday against the Alexandria Blizzard.

Bobcats coach Byron Pool was cautiously optimistic about what he saw in the team's 1-2-1 start.

"Overall Iwas pretty pleased with our performance," Pool said. "We played some pretty good teams. The (U.S. National Team Development Program) Under-17s are good, and Traverse City and Mahoning Valley are veteran clubs who are going to be strong out east.

"We felt like if we went 2-2, we would be happy,"he added. "We were only a point short of that, and I don't think we played anywhere near the kind of hockey we're capable of playing."

The most pleasant surprise was the play of Bosner. Picked up just last week, Bosner played parts of three games and was sharp, posting a 1.76 goals against average and a .946 save percentage.

"He was absolutely excellent," Pool said. "He stole all three points for us. … Right now it's David's ball, and we're going to let him run with it."

Goals have been hard to come by for the Bobcats in recent seasons. Aside from 2005-06 - when Eric Kattelus, Jacques Lamoureux and Tommy Dee carried the offense - you'd have to go back to Garrett Roth in 2002-03 to find a Bobcat who averaged a point per game.

But Pool feels like there's some chemistry between Keefer - who is tied for second in the league in goals - and Jordan Singer.

What Bismarck needs is other players to contribute. The Bobcats are averaging 2.00 goals per game.

"We need to find some secondary scoring," pool said. "… At the junior level, you don't win many games 2-1."

To find that, Pool will be juggling lines. Nicholas Jensen will skate with Singer and Keefer tonight. Bryan Kozlowski, Joel Lundstrom and Jason Fabian will make up the second line. Casey Kleisinger will skate with the Harris twins, Jeffrey and Kevin, on the third line.

Meanwhile, the Bobcats thought they couldn't get any worse on the penalty kill than they were last season, when they finished dead last at 77.2 percent. It's early, but so far they're not only still last, they've been much worse (70.8 percent).

"We didn't work enough on the penalty kill last year, and we haven't caught up on it yet," Pool said.

One thing that could work in Bismarck's favor is that the Bobcats will play nothing but Central Division foes the rest of the season, and early returns indicate the Central is the weakest division in the league. The five teams in the Central combined to go 5-12-3 at the Showcase.

On paper, Alexandria is the clear favorite. The Blizzard has a strong core of veterans back from a team that parlayed a good second half into a trip to nationals.

North Iowa dominated the division during the regular season last season. The Outlaws lost most of their top players, but Pool said they restocked with talent eager to play for the national tournament host team.

Owatonna and Albert Lea are expansion teams. The Express got a late start recruiting talent because the team wasn't approved until right before the draft, and the Thunder had a head coaching change before their first game.

n DINGED UP:The Bobcats incurred a couple of minor injuries at the Showcase. Forward Will Aide (shoulder) will be held out of the lineup, as will defenseman Devin Schmitt (wrist). Pool said both are day-to-day.