DATE: Dec. 10, 2005
Beavers get game-tying goal from Rob Sirianni in final 90 seconds of regulation

BEMIDJI, Minn. (John Glas Fieldhouse) - Bemidji State junior Rob Sirianni (Edmonton, Alberta) erased a 2-1 deficit with his sixth goal of the season at 18:34 of the third period, helping BSU skate to a 2-2 non-conference tie with Lake Superior State tonight in Bemidji.

Both BSU goals came in the third period, as the Beavers unleashed an 18-shot onslaught against Laker netminder Jeff Jakaitis to erase a 1-0 second-intermission deficit.
Jake Bluhm (Red Wing, Minn.) found the back of the nets for the seventh time this season to draw BSU even at 1-1 with help from Sirianni and Ryan Miller (Fergus Falls, Minn.).

The game remained at 1-1 until the Lakers recaptured the lead on a Colin Nicholson goal at the 17:37 mark. However, Sirianni again drew BSU even less than a minute later with help from Bluhm and Miller to force overtime and help preserve the draw.

The Beavers came out strong in the first eight minutes of the contest, completely dominating the flow of play and putting up 10 shots against Laker goaltender Jeff Jakaitis while allowing no shots against their own goal. Despite the intense pressure, BSU was unable to score, and after the initial flurry the Lakers settled in on both sides of the red line. BSU garnered just one shot in the final 12 minutes of the first period, while the Lakers ramped up the pressure against BSU’s net and garnered eight shots.

Despite the see-saw battle, neither team was able to find the nets and the teams took a scoreless tie into the first intermission.

“The first ten minutes we really responded to last night’s game,” BSU head coach Tom Serratore said. “We were all over them and we had a lot of energy but we kind of faded a little bit and they were able to pick it up.”

BSU had an opportunity to break the scoreless deadlock, skating with a five-on-three power-play for 1:23 midway through the second period. The Lakers were caught with too many men on the ice at 8:11 of the second, and Ren Fauci was whistled for tripping 37 seconds later.

The Lakers escaped, killing the first penalty and then broke the scoreless deadlock with a short-handed goal by Kory Scoran at 10:21 of the period. It was the first short-handed goal allowed by BSU this season, and first since 13:29 of the second period against Minn.-Duluth on Feb. 26, 2005 - a span of 1,140:18 of game time.

The Beavers spent four of the period’s final eight minutes on the penalty kill, and were unable to take advantage of an interference call against LSSU’s Steve McJannet late in the frame and the 1-0 Laker lead held into the second intermission.

It marked the second consecutive game the Beavers were held scoreless after two periods. It is just the fourth time in the team’s Division I era - and the first time at John Glas Fieldhouse - BSU has been held without a goal through two periods in both games of a weekend series.

Layne Sedevie (Bismarck, N.D.) remained undefeated in goal for the Beavers, saving 22 of 24 shots faced to see his season record move to 6-0-1. Dating back to last season, Sedevie is 9-1-1 in his last 11 starts and has allowed more than two goals just three times.

Jakaitis was a rock in net for the Lakers, turning aside 41 saves on 43 shots faced to earn first-star honors for the game. He was 21-for-21 on save opportunities through two periods, then saved 16 of 18 shots faced in the pivotal third period and all four BSU shots in overtime to preserve the draw. He saw his recod move to 8-5-4 on the season, and for the weekend he piled up 66 saves.

“We’ll take this tie,” Serratore said. “It was a good one. You have bad ones and good ones, and this was a good one for us and a bad one for them because they gave up a goal late in the game. We weren’t happy giving up that second goal, but it is was it is. We were able to respond quickly and do a real nice job executing to draw it even.”

“We tried to pick it up again in the third but they’re a resilient hockey team and they’re very strong defensively.”

Bemidji State moved to 16-21-2 all-time against Lake Superior State, and is winless (0-3-1) in each of the last four meetings between the programs in Bemidji and in seven of the last nine dating back to Feb. 28, 1971.

Bemidji State moved to 9-4-1 with the draw, while Lake Superior State ran its unbeaten streak to six and improved to 9-5-4. BSU returns to action next weekend with a non-conference home-and-home series with the North Dakota Fighting Sioux. BSU hosts North Dakota on Friday, Dec. 16 for a 7:35 p.m. opening faceoff, then travels to Grand Forks, N.D. to tackle the Sioux for a 7:07 p.m. start at the Ralph Englestad Arena on Dec. 17. The Dec. 16 contest will represent North Dakota’s first trip to BSU since March 2-3, 2001.

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