The ‘Beaver Blues’ continued Friday for Minnesota Duluth, whose winless streak against Bemidji State in men’s hockey reached seven games with a 1-1 nonconference overtime tie before 5,682 fans at Amsoil Arena.
The No. 1-ranked and NCHC-leading Bulldogs (11-3-2) meet the No. 15 and WCHA-leading Beavers (13-5-2) again at 7:07 p.m. today, but this time 151 miles away down U.S. Highway 2 at Sanford Center in Bemidji, Minn.
UMD will attempt to beat the Beavers for the first time since Dec. 7, 2012, having gone 0-5-2 since. The seven-game skid is UMD’s longest active winless streak versus any opponent.
“We had a good battle back, hard fought-tie, but there are a lot of things we got to clean up,” said UMD senior captain and center Dominic Toninato of Duluth. “They are a hard-working team. They don’t lose a lot of battles. They compete really hard and they are very sound defensively. It’s a tough recipe to beat.”
The opening 30-plus minutes of Friday’s game left many Bulldogs fans pulling their hair out through their toques as they again watched the Bulldogs struggle against Bemidji State, just as UMD had done during the last three meetings that took place over the previous two seasons.
Those losses include a 4-0 defeat in the first round of the North Star College Cup in St. Paul in January 2015; a last-minute 3-2 defeat in Bemidji to open the 2015-16 season; and a 2-1 home loss in Duluth on a Tuesday in February 2016.
The Beavers jumped out to a 1-0 lead Friday after senior Phillip Marinaccio scored off a rebound on a first-period power play. Marinaccio took a puck that came off a toe save by UMD freshman Hunter Miska, pushed it off the skate of UMD senior center Sammy Spurrell and through Miska’s legs.
“I thought we played a really good road game,” said Beavers coach Tom Serratore, a native of Coleraine. “When you can get a lead on the road, that’s all you’re looking for right there. I thought we managed the game really well with that lead, and we almost extended it a few times.”
The Bulldogs finally scored early in the third period, also putting a puck into the net off an opponent’s skate via a rebound.
A shot by sophomore center Adam Johnson of Hibbing was kick-saved right to sophomore wing Parker Mackay, who had freshman wing Riley Tufte in perfect position to score his first collegiate goal. The puck never got to Tufte, though. Instead it bounced off a Beaver and through to tie the game at 1-1.
“I was trying to make a play to Tufte, but it was lucky enough to go off their skate and into the net,” Mackay said of his fourth goal of the season and first since Nov. 11 against Western Michigan. “They play a solid game defensively, so I was just trying to throw a puck to the net like we had been doing all night. I was fortunate enough to get a good bounce.”
Mackay’s goal came shortly after senior wing Kyle Osterberg was injured on a dangerous hit at the Bulldogs’ blue line. The hit - which appeared to warrant at least a two-minute minor for interference, if not a five-minute major penalty - happened away from the play, with the puck not even close to Osterberg, who eventually returned to the ice.
The hit to Osterberg appeared to fire up the Bulldogs late, or in the words of UMD coach Scott Sandelin, it woke up his team.
“We were sleeping,” Sandelin said. “I thought we played a little better the second half of the game. We had the puck a little bit more. We didn’t give them too many opportunities. We just have to clean up some things, too.
“I didn’t think we won enough battles tonight. I thought, at times especially early in the game, they won the body-position battles and the first goal was a great example of that. We have to be better. We have to play with a high-level of compete against Bemidji.”
- After a scoreless five-minute overtime period, UMD and Bemidji State played an exhibition period of 3-on-3 with the Beavers’ Zach Whitecloud scoring 59 seconds in. Results from 3-on-3 periods and shootouts only count in NCHC and WCHA play, not nonconference games.
- Grand Rapids native and junior forward Avery Peterson will make his debut with the Bulldogs tonight in Bemidji. Per NCAA rules, Peterson had to sit out two full semesters after transferring from Nebraska-Omaha to UMD last January. UMD’s fall semester ended Friday.
- UMD is without freshman wing and second-leading scorer Joey Anderson this weekend. He’s at a U.S. National Junior Team training camp in Buffalo, N.Y. in preparation for the IIHF World Junior Championship.
Bemidji State 1-0-0-0-1
Minnesota Duluth 0-0-1-0-1
First period - 1. BSU, Phillip Marinaccio 7 (Brendan Harms, Jay Dickman), 15:30 (pp). Penalties - Nick Wolff, UMD (holding), 7:28; Dan Billett, BSU (interference), 9:46; Alex Iafallo, UMD (tripping), 14:18; Bench minor, BSU (too many men on the ice), 16:14; Willie Raskob, UMD (hooking), 18:01.
Second period - No scoring. Penalties - Nate Arentz, BSU (tripping), 7:21; Justin Beaudry, BSU (boarding), 14:04; Arentz, BSU (slashing), 17:19.
Third period - 2. UMD, Parker Mackay 4 (Adam Johnson, Hunter Miska), 6:23. Penalties - None.
Overtime - No scoring. Penalties - None.
Shots on goal - BSU 8-8-4-1-21; UMD 13-11-10-2-36. Goalies - Michael Bitzer, BSU (36 shots-35 saves); Hunter Miska, UMD (21-20). Power plays - BSU 1-of-3; UMD 0-of-5. Referees - Todd Anderson, Brad Shepherd. Linesmen - Nick Biondich, Kevin Cassidy. Att. - 5,682.
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