Nebraska-Omaha goalie Ryan Massa, left, and Bemidji State's Shea Walters, right, watch the shot from Bemidji State's Ben Kinne (not pictured) fly by for a goal during the first period. Pioneer Photo/Eric Stromgren
The Bemidji State men’s hockey team was in danger of losing its first game to Nebraska-Omaha as members of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association Friday night at the Sanford Center.
On Bemidji State’s last gasp with the extra attacker on the ice, Jordan George scored with 58.9 seconds left in the third period to force overtime and steal a 3-3 tie in front of 3,393 fans.
George reached out to corral a 100-foot pass from defenseman Matt Prapavessis, skated across the blue line and his shot from the top of the circle deflected off a defenseman’s stick and through Omaha goalie Ryan Massa.
“It was a good pass – right on the tape,” George said. “It took a little member’s bounce there and fortunately it went in.”
Ben Kinne scored in the first period, Brady Wacker scored in the second period and goalie Dan Bakala had 40 saves for the Beavers.
Josh Archibald scored in the first period for Omaha. Terry Broadhurst and Jayson Megna scored the second period to give UNO a 3-2 lead after two periods.
“When you’re down 3-2 and you pull your goalie, you take the point and sleep pretty good tonight,” BSU head coach Tom Serratore said.
The Beavers remained unbeaten against the Mavericks dating back to the start of last season when the two programs joined the WCHA. BSU is 5-0-2 against UNO.
“It was a typical Bemidji-UNO game,” Omaha coach Dean Blais said. “It was good up and down hockey. There were a lot of plays, breakdowns both ways and I guess both teams deserved a point.”
Bemidji State’s record moved to 4-6-1 overall (2-4-1 WCHA) with the tie and the Beavers wrap up the weekend series with Omaha (5-5-1, 2-4-1 WCHA) Saturday at the Sanford Center at 7:07 p.m.
Omaha opened scoring 7:48 into the first period when Archibald took a cross-ice pass down from Megna down low to beat Bakala. The Beavers tied the score at 1-1 when Kinne beat Massa’s blocker from the left circle eight minutes later.
Wacker’s first goal of the season gave the Beavers a 2-1 lead 45 seconds into the second period. A rebound popped out to Wacker at the blue line and he drove a slap shot through traffic for the score.
Omaha took over the last half of the second period starting with Broadhurst’s power-play goal 7:58 in when he beat Bakala in close for a short-side score. Megna tipped a pass from Brent Gwidt at the front of the net for a goal with 2.5 seconds left in the period.
Omaha outshot BSU 31-16 through two periods.
“I thought the first period we came out and played our game the way we wanted to play and it got a way from us in the second period,” George said. “They took it to us and that goal at the end kind of deflated us a little bit. We regrouped, came out of the locker room and played a pretty good third period.”
The Beavers had to juggle the forward lines in the third period to adjust for the loss of Radoslav Illo, who suffered an upper body injury in the first period according to Serratore. He played through it in the second period but sat out the third.
Just seconds before George’s goal, Omaha had a chance to ice the game but Bryce Aneloski’s shot from the red line missed the open net while Bakala was on the bench.
“He missed the net and I said ‘oh no,’” Blais said. ” We had our chance. We had our chance to put the game away.”
That’s when Brad Hunt skated behind the net under pressure, moved the puck to Prapavessis and he made the pass to George in front of the Omaha bench.
“How many times do you see a chance at an open net, you miss it, back they come and it goes in?,” Blais said. “Jordan George finds a way to get goals like Matt Read last year.”
The overtime didn’t lack for dramatics. Bakala stopped Matt White 30 seconds in on an odd-man break. BSU then killed an Omaha power play resulting from a hooking penalty to Sam Rendle.
Kinne had BSU’s best scoring chance of overtime during the penalty kill, but was pushed away from the net before he could get a shot. Bakala saved the game again for the Beavers with a leg stop on a wrap-around attempt from Alex Hudson with two minutes to play.
“The pucks were bouncing out there and he (Bakala) had to be really sharp,” Prapavessis said. “It was a battle, both teams were going very hard and we’re very happy with the point but obviously you want two.”
Scoring Summary
UNO 1 2 0 0 – 3
BSU 1 1 1 0 – 3
First period – 1, UNO Archibald 4 (Megna, Gwidt), 7:48. 2, BSU Kinne 4 (George, Hunt), 15:51.
Second period – 3, BSU Wacker 1 (unassisted), :45. 4, UNO Broadhurst 9 (Aneloski, White), 7:58. 5, UNO Megna 4 (Gwidt, Young), 19:58.
Third period – 6, George 6 (Prapavessis), 19:02.
Shots on goal – UNO, 15-16-10-2-43. BSU, 6-10-9-0-25.
Goalies – UNO, Massa (25-22). BSU, Bakala (43-40).
Power Plays – UNO, 1-for-5. BSU, 0-for-2.
A- 3,393.
Photo Gallery
Brance Orban and Jaycob Megna
Tony Turgeon checks Mitch Cain
Brance Orban and Ryan Massa
Shea Walters checks Andrej Sustr
Sean Rudy
Jordan George
Brady Wacker fires a shot on goal
Brad Hunt
Terry Broadhurst scores
Dan Bakala makes a save on Alex Hudson
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