FINDLAY, Ohio - [stats] The Bemidji State men’s ice hockey team completed a two-game series sweep of the Findlay Oilers and extended its streak of consecutive regular-season road wins in College Hockey America play to four with a 3-1 win tonight at the Clauss Ice Arena.

Bemidji State, which won just three CHA road games last year, picked up road wins at Air Force on March 7-8, 2003 in its final road series of last season. The four consecutive road wins in league play establishes a Division I-era record for BSU and the first such streak since 1997-98 when the Beavers defeated UW-Stout on Jan. 16-17, 1998 and St. Scholastica on Jan. 23-24 in Northern Collegiate Hockey Association play.

As it did with a five-goal first-period outburst in last night’s 5-3 victory, the Beavers set the tone with multiple first-period goals again tonight. Sophomore Jean-Guy Gervais got things rolling with his first career goal just 8:12 into the contest, taking a helper from freshman Rob Sirianni to stake the Beavers to a 1-0 lead.

True freshman Luke Erickson then scored his first career power-play goal with just one second to play in the first period off a pass from Peter Jonsson and Brendan Cook, the eventual game-winner which gave BSU a 2-0 edge.

Findlay netted the game’s only second-period tally, as Christian Olson scored at the 18:57 mark from Matt Batovanga.

Erickson wrapped up scoring with his second goal of the contest and team-high fourth of the season, taking a helper from Andrew Murray and scoring on an empty net at 19:29 of the third to give BSU the 3-1 victory.

Senior netminder Grady Hunt continued his success against the Oilers. He saved 26 of 27 shots tonight to earn his second victory of the season. For the series, he allowed just four goals on 60 shots, saving at a .933 clip. He is now 7-3-3 all-time against Findlay. The win improved Hunt to 2-2-0 on the year.

Will Hooper saved 25 of 27 shots faced in 59:16 of work to take the loss for the Oilers.

The key to BSU’s success during its weekend sweep was domination of the first period. The Beavers, which had not scored a first-period goal in any of its first four games this season, lit the lamp seven times during the first period of the weekend series - five goals in Game 1 and two tonight.

The series also seemed to mark an end to BSU’s early-season offensive struggles. The Beavers entered play this weekend ranked 56th out of 58 Division I programs averaging 1.50 goals per game, but hit the Oilers for four goals per start over the weekend. The eight goals marked BSU’s highest-scoring series since Feb. 28-March 1, 2003 when BSU tied Niagara 2-2 and beat it 6-1 at the John Glas Fieldhouse.

Bemidji State’s weekend sweep improved it to 11-5-3 all-time against Findlay and extended its unbeaten streak in the series to nine games, its longest unbeaten streak against any CHA foe. BSU has not lost to Findlay since Nov. 10, 2001. The Beavers now have 10 regular-season CHA wins over the Oilers, their most against any CHA foe.

The sweep improved Bemidji State to 2-2-2 on the season, 2-0-0 in CHA play, while Findlay dropped its fourth consecutive game and sixth in seven starts to fall to 2-6-0 on the year and 0-2-0 in circuit play. Bemidji State returns to non-conference play this coming weekend with a home-and-home series against Minnesota-Duluth. BSU hosts the Bulldogs in a 7:35 p.m. start Friday, Nov. 14 at John Glas Fieldhouse, then travels to Duluth for a 7:05 p.m. faceoff at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center Saturday, Nov. 15.

--bsu--