Nov. 8, 2002
Beavers pick up first victory of the season, snap
14-game winless streak
FINDLAY, Ohio - [box
score] Finally. The Bemidji State men’s ice hockey
team picked up its first victory in more than nine months,
toppling the Findlay Oilers 2-1 in the College Hockey America
opener for both teams tonight at the Clauss Ice Arena.
Bemidji State was sparked by the play of goaltender Grady
Hunt, making his first appearance in net for the Beavers since
opening night after suffering an injury in practice two weeks
ago. Hunt allowed just one goal and saved 25 of 26 shots faced
to pick up the victory for BSU. Ten of Hunt’s 25 saves
came with Findlay on the power play. The Oilers came into
tonight’s game leading College Hockey America in power-play
efficiency at .300, and Hunt shut them out on three opportunities
with a man advantage.
All three of the game’s goals were scored in a frantic
second period which saw Bemidji State out-shoot Findlay 24-6.
Despite getting just six shots for the period, the Oilers
drew first blood on Nick Udovicic’s second goal of the
season just 2:02 into the period. The lead would hold for
just over nine minutes, until BSU’s Myles Kuharski picked
up the first goal of his career at the 11:08 mark to even
the score at a goal apiece. Kuharski took the helper from
Bill Methven and Ryan Huddy; it was Methven’s first
assist of the season and second for Huddy.
But in a flurry of activity in front of the Findlay net as
the second period wound down, it was Andrew Murray who provided
the dagger to kill Bemidji State’s winless streak. Taking
a pass from Jeff McGill and Marty Goulet, Murray knocked home
his team-leading fourth goal of the season at 19:36 of the
second period to give BSU a 2-1 lead - and eventually its
first win of the season.
The goal was Murray’s third career game-winner and
first since netting the game-winner in BSU’s last victory
- Feb. 8, 2002 against Air Force.
“Overall this was a great hockey game,” BSU head
coach Tom Serratore said. “It went down to the wire.
Our guys showed a lot of character; we were down, then fought
back to tie it and then took the lead. And we had great clock
management in the third period.
“Grady was Grady,” Serratore said of Hunt’s
efforts. “He played well, but the guys played well in
front of him defensively. Our team defense was awesome. We
kept a lot of quality shots down. It was a total team effort.”
Bemidji State dodged two milestones with tonight’s
victory. The Beavers avoided tying a dubious school record
for consecutive games without a win, a streak which had reached
14 games prior to tonight, and prevented Findlay head coach
Craig Barnett from reaching his 100th career victory as a
collegiate head coach.
The Beavers improved to 7-5-1 all-time against Findlay with
tonight’s win, and are now 4-3-0 with 12 points scored
all-time in their opening weekend of CHA play.
The win improves BSU to 1-2-4 on the season and moves the
Beavers into a first-place tie in the CHA standings with both
Air Force and Niagara (two points). It is BSU’s first
share of the CHA lead since Feb. 8, 2002 - which ironically
also was the date of BSU’s last victory, a 5-2 win over
Air Force. Findlay fell to 2-3-0 overall and 0-1-0 in CHA
play. The teams wrap up their two-game series tomorrow night
at the Clauss Ice Arena. Opening face-off is slated for 7:05
p.m. Eastern time.
2/2:02/UF - Nick Udovicic (Andrew Radzak, David Vogt) //
0-1
2/11:08/BSU - Myles Kuharski (1) (Bill Methven/1, Ryan Huddy/2)
// 1-1
2/19:36/BSU - Andrew Murray (4-GW) (Jeff McGill/2, Marty Goulet/3)
// 2-1 / GW
BSU: Grady Hunt (60:00/9-5-11=25 saves/1 GA/W; 1-0-1)
UF: Jamie VandeSpyker (59:22/7-22-7=36 saves/3 GA/L; 2-3-0)
/ empty net (0:38/0 GA)
penalties/power plays: BSU: 4-8/0-1; UF: 6-12/0-3 |
