DATE: December 15, 2006
Beavers post 900th all-time victory; extend unbeaten streak to Division I-era record eight games

BEMIDJI, Minn. (John S. Glas Fieldhouse) - Bemidji State remained undefeated for a Division I-era record eighth consecutive game, rallying from an early one-goal deficit to post a 3-2 College Hockey America victory over the Ala.-Huntsville Chargers. The win also marked the 900th victory in the history of the Bemidji State program, making the Beavers the 18th member of the 900-win club out of the 59 current members of NCAA Division I. BSU is now 900-416-76 in its 51st season of varsity competition, and at .674 has the highest all-time winning percentage of the current members of Division I.

Alabama-Huntsville scored the game’s first goal, but BSU rallied with a pair of unanswered markers to take a 2-1 lead into the first intermission.

Tom Train found Matt Sweazey at the top of the left circle, and Sweazey unleashed a shot on BSU goaltender Matt Climie (Leduc, Alberta). Climie lost the rebound and Joe Federoff skated in behind Climie to push the puck home at 5:08 of the first period and give the visiting Chargers the early lead.

BSU pulled even at the 9:43 mark of the period, when Blaine Jarvis (Gladstone, Manitoba) took a nifty pass from Sirianni in the offensive zone and beat Marc Narduzzi to help the Beavers pull even. The assist was Sirianni’s 80th career point, making him the eighth player in BSU’s Division I era to reach 80 career points scored.

The Beavers pulled ahead for the first time at 13:46 of the period when Sirianni and Chris Peluso (Wadena, Minn.) assisted the first goal of the season from Jake Bluhm (Red Wing, Minn.) to put the hosts on top, 2-1.

The one-goal lead for the Beavers held until the final two minutes of the second period. Ala.-Huntsville’s Steve Canter was whistled for tripping at the 18:23 mark of the frame, and BSU needed just 16 seconds to take advantage of the power-play opportunity. John Vadnais (Stillwater, Minn.) found the nets for his first career power-play goal, again with help from Sirianni who notched his career-high third assist of the night. Jarvis assisted on the marker for the Beavers, his second point of the night.

BSU’s 3-1 lead held until the final three minutes of the game, when the Chargers put up a late goal to pull within 3-2. Federoff scored his second goal of the night - and his second of the season - at 17:43 with assists from Steve Canter and Brandon Roshko to pull the visitors within a goal, but they could get no closer.

Ala.-Huntsville played the game’s final 43 seconds with Narduzzi on the bench in favor of an extra attacker, but the Chargers were unable to find the tying goal.

Climie turned in a strong outing for the Beavers, saving 24 of 26 shots faced and running his streak of consecutive starts without a loss to eight, dating back to a Nov. 11 shutout of Robert Morris. He picked up the victory and saw his season record improve to 6-2-3. During Climie’s eight-start unbeaten streak, he has

Narduzzi took the loss for the Chargers, surrendering all three BSU goals against 33 saves in 59:17 of work. He fell to 4-8-0 on the year.

The victory continued BSU’s recent domination of its series with the Chargers, as the Beavers extended their series-best streak of consecutive victories to four. BSU has defeated the Chargers in each of the last four games in Bemidji, and in the last eight games against the Chargers at John Glas Fieldhouse has gone 6-1-1. BSU improved to 16-25-1 all-time against Ala.-Huntsville, and has gone 11-5-1 in the last 17 meetings between the long-time rivals.

BSU’s eight-game unbeaten streak is the longest in its Division I era and longest at BSU since the 1997-98 season, when the Beavers assembled an eight-game winning streak from Jan. 4 - 24, 1998. BSU’s eight-game unbeaten streak is the fourth-longest active streak in the nation. The win also helped BSU run its winning streak to five consecutive games, tied with several others for the second-longest winning streak in its Division I era.

Bemidji State improved to 8-4-3 with the victory, 4-2-3 in College Hockey America, while the Chargers dropped to 5-11-1, 3-6-0 against the conference. The teams wrap up their two-game series tomorrow night with a 7:05 p.m. opening faceoff at BSU’s John Glas Fieldhouse.

--beavers--