DATE: Feb. 26, 2005
Beavers surrender two short-handed goals in pivotal second period

BEMIDJI, Minn. (John Glas Fieldhouse) [stats] - Bemidji State’s special teams melted down during a five-minute span in the second period, allowing a power-play goal and two short-handed markers as the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs rallied for a 5-2 victory tonight in a non-conference game at the John Glas Fieldhouse.

BSU held a 1-0 at the first intermission on a power-play goal from John Haider (Forest Lake, Minn.). Haider took a pass from Peter Jonsson (Astorp, Sweden) and Luke Erickson (Roseau, Minn.), then fired a shot off the skate of UMD defenseman Neil Petruic to put the Beavers on the board at 6:41 of the first. It was Haider’s first goal since Nov. 22, 2004 at Wayne State, a span of 24 games.

The 1-0 lead held until the 4:21 mark of the second period, when the Bulldogs finally solved BSU goaltender Layne Sedevie (Bismarck, N.D.). Evan Schwabe scored his 19th goal of the season from Matt McKnight and Todd Smith to pull the Bulldogs even, 1-1.

Erickson was whistled for holding at 9:36 of the second, a penalty which helped open the floodgates for UMD. Tim Hambley needed less than a minute to punish the Beavers for Erickson’s transgression, scoring his fifth goal of the season at 10:27 to give the Bulldogs a lead they would not relinquish.

At 11:55 of the second, UMD’s Travis Gawryletz was whistled for tripping, and it was then the wheels fell off for BSU. The Bulldogs scored two short-handed goals on the ensuing BSU power play, becoming the first team in BSU’s Division I era to score two short-handed goals on the same minor penalty. Hambly picked up a loose puck in BSU’s end and found Brett Hammond, who fed Justin Williams on a breakaway to put the Bulldogs ahead 3-1 at 12:51.

Then just 38 seconds later, Luke Stauffacher scored on another breakaway to put the nail in BSU’s coffin, 4-2.

Alabama-Huntsville scored two short-handed goals on a major penalty on Feb. 2, 2000 to mark the only other occurrence in BSU’s Division I era in which the Beavers allowed two short-handed goals on the same penalty.

“This was a tough loss for us,” BSU head coach Tom Serratore said. “We had five bad minutes in the second period where we were dysfunctional and gave up two short-handed goals and a power-play goal. Otherwise, we played a pretty good game.

“But when you give up goals like that to a team like UMD, you’re going to pay,” Serratore said. “And they made us pay.”

BSU pulled back within two goals, 4-2, when Rob Sirianni (Edmonton, Alberta) scored his 10th goal of the season on a power play after a brawl and a major penalty for checking from behind against UMD’s T.J. Caig.

But the rally would be short-lived, as Schwabe scored his second goal of the night and 20th of the season at the 9:22 mark of the third for the game’s final 5-2 margin.

The game was dictated by rough play from start to finish. The teams combined to draw 27 penalties for 65 minutes in the contest, with the Bulldogs alone called for 16 infractions for 43 minutes. BSU drew 11 penalties, all minors.

UMD’s Jay Rosehill drew a pair of minors for roughing at 5:38 of the first period after driving BSU’s Jean-Guy Gervais (Winnipeg, Manitoba) into the boards after a whistle, and Gervais was involved in the third-period scuffle which led to Sirianni’s power-play marker. He drew Caig’s major checking from behind penalty and immediately retaliated, setting off a melee which led to double roughing penalties to himself and teammate David Deterding (Alexandria, Minn.) along with UMD’s Stauffacher and Nick Anderson.

Sedevie took the loss for BSU, seeing his three-game winning streak come to an end. He allowed four goals on just nine shots faced in 33:29 of work, and was lifted for Matt Climie (Leduc, Alberta) after Stauffacher’s short-handed goal in the second. He saw his season record fall to 11-8-0. Climie played the game’s final 25:24 and saved five of six shots faced.

Isaac Reichmuth saved 35 of 37 shots faced in a 60:00 complete game for the Bulldogs; he improved his season mark to 8-10-3.

Bemidji State out-shot the Bulldogs 37-15 in the contest, extending its streak of consecutive games without being out-shot on its home ice to 39, dating back to Dec. 7, 2002.

Bemidji State drops to 2-15-0 in its series against Minn.-Duluth, and has gone 2-10-0 since moving to Division I in 1999. BSU drops to 3-42-3 in its Division I era against Western Collegiate Hockey Association foes, including 0-5-1 this season.

The loss dropped Bemidji State to 19-12-1 on the season, while the Bulldogs saw their season mark improve to 14-15-1. With the victory, Minnesota-Duluth retains the Babe the Blue Ox traveling trophy, which made its debut a year ago and is awarded to the winner of the Saturday game of the series between the intra-state rivals. Bemidji State wraps up its 2004-05 regular season at Air Force, March 5-6.

--bsu--