Bemidji State unable to hold early lead and lose to No. 15 Minnesota-Duluth 6-2, photo gallery

Bemidji State goalie Andrew Walsh makes a save on Minnesota-Duluth's J.T. Brown, far left, as Brady Wacker, 25, Shea Walters, 11, and Matt Carlson, 5, defend during the first period of Friday's game in Duluth. Pioneer Photo/Eric Stromgren

DULUTH – Sometimes a coaching decision at the right moment can turn the tide of a hockey game and deliver a victory.

Minnesota-Duluth head coach Scott Sandelin called an early timeout in the first period and the No. 15 Bulldogs rallied from a two-goal deficit for a 6-2 win over the Bemidji State men’s hockey team Friday night in front of 6,111 fans at Amsoil Arena.

“We knew after the timeout there was going to be some desperation from UMD,” Bemidji State head coach Tom Serratore said. “We didn’t respond after the timeout.”

Brad Hunt and Jordan George scored goals 65 seconds apart in the opening minutes of the first period to give BSU a 2-0 lead. Sandelin then called the timeout, Wade Bergman scored less than a minute later, J.T. Brown scored in the middle of the period and the game went into intermission tied 2-2.

The Bulldogs pulled away with goals from Keegan Flaherty and Chris Casto in the second period. Brady Lamb and Jack Connolly scored for UMD in the third period.

Bemidji State was outshot 40-17 in the loss.

“It was just the simple things,” BSU captain Ben Kinne said. “They got pucks deep and we didn’t. They got way more shots on net than us and that’s what’s going to happen in this league. We’re going to lose 6-2 if we’re going to play that bad.”

Bemidji State freshman goalie Andrew Walsh was tested throughout and made some acrobatic saves in his second straight start. He finished with 34 saves and UMD goalie Kenny Reiter had 15 saves.

Bemidji State (3-4, 2-3 WCHA) and Minnesota-Duluth (3-3-1, 1-2 WCHA) wrap up the weekend series Saturday night in Duluth at 7:07 p.m.

The Beavers entered the weekend with an 8-4-1 record against the Bulldogs in the last 13 games, including a 3-2 overtime win last spring in the WCHA Final Five.

BSU and UMD played two overtime games last season at the Sanford Center. Friday’s game wasn’t close and the Bulldogs improved to 20-10-1 in the all-time series.

Bemidji State had no answer on either end of the ice against UMD.

“It starts with moving your feet and doing the simple things we didn’t do tonight,” Kinne said. “That’s when you’re going to get our chances, draw penalties and when you’re on the power play you have to capitalize. You have to do that in this league to win.”

BSU opened scoring when Hunt took a feed from Jeff Jubinville to score his second goal of the season 6:21 in to the game. George followed at 7:26 when he beat Reiter’s blocker for his fourth goal of the season.

That’s when Sandelin called the timeout.

“I thought we were playing fine,” Sandelin said. “I just wanted to make sure it didn’t get any worse and it looks great when it works. I thought we had a lot of jump and a good start to the game but that’s what happens sometimes. I didn’t want our guys to get rattled down 2-0. Whether it works or not. you never know.”

Bergman scored 55 seconds after George’s goal when he buried a rebound during a pileup at the crease to cut the BSU lead to one goal. Brown put back another rebound on the far side of the net at 13:24 to tie the game 2-2.

BSU’s best scoring chance in the second period came with four minutes to go from Aaron McLeod, but Reiter saved the puck with his outstretched leg as the puck banked off the post. The Beavers were outplayed and outshot 12-4 in the second period.

“The bottom line is you’ve got to have puck possession,” Serratore said. “It was a flat out one-sided game and Duluth dominated play. It was evident with the score. We’re obviously going to have to get a little dirtier tomorrow.”

Scoring Summary

BSU 2 0 0 – 2
UMD 2 2 2 – 6
First period- 1, BSU Hunt 2 (Jubinville, McLeod), 6:21. 2, BSU George 4 (Boehm), 7:26. 3, UMD Bergman 1 (Brown, Connolly), 8:21. 4, UMD Brown (Casto), 13:24.
Second period- 5, UMD Flaherty (DeLisle), 8:15. 6, UMD Casto 1 (Herbert, Crandall), 9:32.
Third period – 7, UMD Lamb 1 (Oleksuk, Connolly), 7:11 (pp). 8, UMD Connolly 2 (Bergman), 11:07.
Shots on goal – BSU, 5-4-8-17. UMD, 15-12-13-40.
Goalies – BSU, Walsh (40-34). UMD, Reiter (17-15).
Power Plays – BSU, 0-for-2. UMD, 1-for-5.
A-6,111.