Feb. 6, 2009

Bemidji, Minn. -- Brad Hunt (Fr., D, Ridge Meadows, British Columbia) netted two goals to provide the Bemidji State University men’s ice hockey team with all the offense it would need Friday night at the John S. Glas Fieldhouse. Goaltender Matt Dalton (So., Clinton, Ontario) did his part at the other end of the rink by keeping the University of Alabama-Huntsville off the scoreboard to vault the Beavers to a 2-0 College Hockey America victory.

With just five weeks remaining in the regular season, every point down the stretch is crucial as the Beavers attempt to defend their CHA title. Tonight the BSU gained two important points in the standings to hold a three-point edge over University of Niagara, which defeated Robert Morris University 4-2.

Bemidji State busted out of the gates firing on all cylinders and threatened early, but a penalty to assistant captain Cody Bostock (Sr., D, Salmon Arm, British Columbia) just 2:01 in derailed the BSU attack. The remaining 17:59 of the first period was rather uneventful. Each team struggled to gain any sort of momentum and would combine for a total of eight shots on goal to finish the frame locked in a scoreless tie.

Hunt broke the 0-0 deadlock at the 6:59 mark of the period with his ninth goal of the season on a blast from the point. The rocket, which extended his team-long point string to six games, found its way through traffic in front of the net and was never seen my the Charger goaltender. Jamie MacQueen (Fr., F, London, Ontario) and Tyler Lehrke (Jr., F, Park Rapids, Minn.) added assists on the eventual game-winning, even-strength goal.

The freshman blueliner would add another goal less than five minutes later (11:49) to give the Beavers a 2-0 cushion.

Hunt fired a second slap shot from between the circles to add to his team-leading 7-8=15 points on the man advantage with just 10 seconds remaining in Bemidji State’s third power play of the night. Matt Read (Sr., C, Ilderton, Ontario) and Tyler Scofield (Sr., F, Prince George, British Columbia) cycled the puck around the back of the net and out in front to Hunt who buried it in the back of the net for his second goal of the evening and ninth of the season. The lamplighter would supply the BSU freshman, and reigning CHA Rookie of the Week, with the first collegiate multi-goal game of his career.

The goal on the man advantage also continued a second-half trend for the BSU special teams unit. It marked the Beavers’ eighth consecutive game with a power-play goal and since the team turned its focus back to CHA play Jan. 23, Bemidji State has converted 9-of-26 (34.6-percent) of its power-play opportunities into goals.

As nicely as the power-play continued to click for BSU, its penalty-kill has been equally as good. The Beavers successfully snuffed out all nine Alabama-Huntsville power-play opportunities in the game and have not allowed a special teams goal in 113:38-- a streak blanketing 14 opponent power-play opportunities. The Beavers have now prevented their opponents from scoring on the man advantage seven times in 2008-09 and are 6-1-0 in those games, with three of those wins coming versus UAH.

A cog to the power-play unit, Dalton improves to 12-8-0 on the season by turning aside 22 Charger shots for the second shutout this season and the third of his BSU career. The sophomore moves into a tie with four other Beaver greats for 10th place on Bemidji State’s all-time shutouts list.

Cameron Talbot was tagged with the loss and falls to 1-11-2 in 2008-09. He finished with 29 saves in 59:35 between the pipes.

The victory brings the Beavers to within a game of evening their all-time record versus Ala.-Huntsville. Since the bitter rivalry began March 11, 1994, BSU trails the Chargers 27-26-3.

Bemidji State (12-13-0; 8-3-0 CHA) sets out in search of its second consecutive conference series sweep tomorrow night as the Beavers and Chargers (4-14-3; 2-6-3 CHA) will face off for the sixth and final time of the 2008-09 regular season. Game time is set for 7:05 pm at the Glas.

--bsu--