Sean Arbaut/Special to the MDN MHS sophomore forward Aiden Morelli (right) attempts to get a shot past Century’s Carter Schoneberg (left) in the second period of a West Region Tournament semifinal game at Maysa Arena.

A dozen seconds after the opening puck drop, the Minot High School boys hockey team was already in trouble.

No. 2-seeded Bismarck Century (19-2-1) wasn’t playing any games and struck early to take down the No. 3-seeded Magicians (11-11-0) Friday evening in the semifinals of the West Region Tournament at Maysa Arena.

Scoring three first-period goals, Century claimed a 4-1 victory over Minot to reach the WDA championship game and clinched a spot at the state tournament.

The Magi just didn’t get their legs turning quick enough.

“(Century) buried their chances in the first period,” MHS co-head coach John Grubb said. “The quality scoring chances ended up being, 11-10, we needed to score ours to be in the game tonight. We had some really good chances that we didn’t put away.”

It was a disastrous start for the Magi, as Century’s Nicholas Brown only needed 12 seconds to score the first goal.

“Our goal was to have a good start and that early goal really knocks that off the rails,” Grubb said. “But, we didn’t shut it down and we didn’t pack it in.”

Staying efficient, Century scored on its second shot on goal as well. Colton Schulte rifled the puck past MHS senior goaltender Odin Nelson.

Minot had a couple chances to get on the scoreboard in the first period, including a Kyler Stenberg breakaway and Jack Plemel all alone in front, but it was a rebound power play tally by Schulte that sent the Magi into the locker room licking their wounds.

“We needed to slow them down and get that extra bit of jump,” Grubb said. “We really hoped that we could score first tonight and that didn’t happen.”

The Magi skated with the Patriots for the first 10 minutes of the second period before Cullen Curl added another Century goal, 4-0.

Searching for anything positive to build on, Minot got a momentum swing from an unlikely source.

MHS senior defenseman Hunter Cope, who was formerly a forward, swung and connected on a bouncing puck near the blue line. The puck got lost in a screen and snuck past Century goaltender Matthew Schmidt for Cope’s first goal of the season.

That was the only blemish for Schmidt. He made 20 total saves and shut the Magi down in the third period.

Century outshot Minot, 29-21, but only had 13 shots and one goal in the final two periods.

“We challenged our kids after the first period,” Grubb said. “And they only gave up 13 shots on goal the rest of the way. That’s impressive. I don’t know that many teams have kept Century under 30 (shots on goal) this year — outside of maybe Grand Forks Central.”

Bismarck High blanked Dickinson, 9-0, in the other semifinal. That sets up an in-city rivalry regional championship contest between Bismarck High and Century at 4 p.m. this evening.

Minot High, looking to return to the state tournament after missing out last season, will play No. 4 Jamestown in a state qualifier at 1:30 p.m. this afternoon.

The other state qualifier will feature No. 5 Dickinson against No. 6 Mandan at 11 a.m. this morning at Maysa Arena.

Alex Eisen covers Minot State athletics, the Minot Minotauros and high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @AEisen13.