Bemidji State’s unbeaten streak against Nebraska-Omaha ends in a 5-1 loss, photo gallery

Bemidji State goalie Dan Bakala makes a save on Nebraska-Omaha's Alex Hudson. Pioneer Photo/Eric Stromgren

Seeing the end of Bemidji State’s unbeaten streak against Nebraska-Omaha in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association was not what bothered Darcy Findlay.

The problem was how it ended in Omaha’s 5-1 victory over the Beavers in front of 3,343 fans Saturday night at the Sanford Center.

“It’s worse when it’s at home,” said Findlay, who scored BSU’s only goal of the game. “A 5-1 game is unacceptable and we just didn’t come to play tonight. It’s doesn’t feel good that we haven’t put together a good 60-minute effort yet this year.”

The Beavers entered Saturday’s game 5-0-2 against the Mavericks in the last seven games dating back to the start of last season.

Terry Broadhurst scored two goals, including the game winner, to help the Mavericks put an end to the unbeaten streak. Omaha took three out of the four standings points in this weekend’s series following Friday’s 3-3 tie.

“They are tough team to play against, so for us to get the monkey off our back is a good thing for the team especially responding from yesterday,” Broadhurst said. “Obviously a tie is not a bad thing but we weren’t satisfied with it.”

Jaycob Megna, Josh Archibald and Brent Gwidt also scored for the Mavericks. Omaha goalie John Faulkner had 20 saves and Bemidji State goalie Dan Bakala had 36 saves.

“We just ran out of gas,” BSU head coach Tom Serratore said. “Their skill level just took over and we were just chasing tail lights from the second period on. They’ve got very good depth up front and today I just felt they were a cut above us and a step ahead of us.”

Bemidji State (4-7-1, 2-5-1 WCHA) stays at the Sanford Center to face North Dakota next weekend in WCHA play. Game time Saturday is 7:07 p.m. and game time Sunday is 5:07 p.m.

Megna scored the first goal for Omaha (6-5-1, 5-2-1 WCHA) seven minutes into the game on a slap shot from the blue line and the Mavericks led 1-0 after the first period.

Findlay tied it for the Beavers when he tipped Brad Hunt’s slap shot from the blue line through the legs of Faulkner 5:24 into the second period.

UNO’s Alex Hudson took a slashing penalty a minute later, but Jamie MacQueen negated the advantage when he took an interference penalty midway through the power play.

Broadhurst scored during the ensuing four-on-four play when he put a wrist shot under the crossbar at 8:02 of the period for a 2-1 lead. He scored again five minutes later on the power play when he was left alone in front of the net and chipped a centering pass from Hudson through Bakala for the 3-1 lead.

It was Broadhurst’s 11th goal of the season, which ties him with Minnesota-Duluth’s Travis Oleksuk for the WCHA lead in goal scoring.

The goal was a back breaker for BSU, which was outshot 18-5 in the second period and 41-21 in the game.

“We just really couldn’t recover from that second goal,” Serratore said.

When the Beavers could not convert on a power play in the middle of the third period, Omaha put the game out of reach on Archibald’s empty-net score when Bakala was pulled with four minutes to play. Archibald then assisted on Gwidt’s goal with 3:16 remaining to make it 5-1.

“We seem to get the momentum, then we get a penalty and lose it,” Findlay said. “If we have a power play and it doesn’t go well we lose momentum. There’s glimpses out there where we look real good and get the puck down low, but we’re very inconsistent.”

Scoring Summary

UNO 1 1 3 – 5
BSU 0 1 0 – 1

First period – 1, UNO Jaycob Megna 1 (Jayson Megna, Sustr), 12:59.
Second period – 2, BSU Findlay 1 (Hunt, Prapavessis), 5:24. 3, UNO Broadhurst 10 (Walters), 8:02.
Third period – 4, UNO Broadhurst 11 (Hudson, Jayson Megna), 3:06, (pp). 5, UNO Archibald 5 (unassisted), 15:48, (en). 6, UNO Gwidt 2 (Archibald), 16:44.
Shots on goal – UNO 8-18-15-41. BSU, 9-5-7-21.
Goalies – UNO, Faulkner (21-20). BSU, Bakala (41-36).
Power Plays – UNO, 1-for-5. BSU, 0-for-4.
A-3,343.

Photo Gallery

All photos by Eric Stromgren.

Jayson Megna and Brance Orban

Matt Prapavessis and Zach Raubenheimer

John Faulkner makes a save ahead of David Boehm

The Mavericks celebrate Jaycob Megna's goal in teh first period

Terry Broadhurst and Dan Bakala

Jordan George and Bryce Aneloski

Drew Fisher

Alex McLeod and Alex Hudson

Darcy Findlay tips in Brad Hunt's shot for a goal

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Follow Eric Stromgren on Twitter at @estromgren and on Facebook.