Bemidji State's Radoslav Illo follows through on a shot as Alabama-Hunstville's Brice Geoffrion defends during the first period. Illo scored Bemidji State's second goal of the game on the shot. Pioneer Photo/Eric Stromgren
The Bemidji State men’s hockey team returned to a place where it has not been since the week before Halloween.
The Beavers completed a weekend sweep of Alabama-Huntsville with a 5-0 win Saturday night at the Sanford Center in front of 3,256 fans and moved back to the .500 record mark.
“We were talking about this the last few weeks that we wanted to be .500 going in to the Christmas,” BSU defenseman Brad Hunt said. “It was good to keep that momentum going from last weekend and come out with two big victories going into the break. It’s going to make Christmas that much more fun.”
The Beavers are now 9-9-2 (5-7-2 WCHA) and closed out the first half of the season with a 5-1-1 record in the last seven games.
Bemidji State showed off its top-ranked penalty kill against the Chargers in Friday’s 3-0 victory. Saturday’s win was all about the power play with three goals on the man advantage.
The Beavers started fast with Aaron McLeod’s goal in the first minute, and Radoslav Illo, Brady Wacker and Hunt followed with three straight power play goals. BSU freshman Danny Mattson ended scoring with 6:32 left in the game.
“I think we did pretty good – they (UAH) were getting tight in the house and we wanted to get as many shots through as we could,” Wacker said. “We moved the puck around very well and got them moving a bit. We got a few shots through. There were good screens in front from some of the rookies.”
BSU freshman goalie Andrew Walsh made his third straight start and had 27 saves in his second straight shutout. He stopped all 47 shots he faced in the series.
Clarke Saunders had 10 saves and John Griggs had 13 saves in split goaltending duty for Huntsville (1-19-1).
Bemidji State does not play Christmas weekend and returns to the ice Jan. 30-31 at the Sanford Center for a non-conference series against future WCHA member Bowling Green.
“We’ve played well the last month,” BSU head coach Tom Serratore said. “This team has made some big strides the last month. They’re winning some games and today they scored some goals. It was a sweep and anytime you get a sweep, it doesn’t happen a lot. You’re excited about sweeping and excited about playing pretty good hockey. It’s a good feeling going into break and hopefully we can carry some of this over into the second half of the year.”
McLeod opened scoring 31 seconds in when he took a centering pass from Jordan George and caught Saunders out of position with a shot from between the circles.
Illo started the power play scoring at 12:12 of the first period and beat Sunders clean with a slap shot from the blue line to give the Beavers a 2-0 lead.
Wacker scored 76 seconds into the second period on the power play to put BSU ahead 3-0. His shot from the blue line deflected off the skate of Huntsville’s Tom Durnie and into the net.
Hunt earned Bemidji State’s points scoring title for the first half when he made it 4-0 with 4:34 left in the second period on a slap shot from the edge of the blue line. He has four goals and 13 assists for 17 points through 20 games.
Hunt’s goal was Bemidji State’s seventh power-play score dating back to the North Dakota win on Nov. 21. BSU entered Saturday’s game with a 22.2 percent success rate on the power play this season and are running at 33.3 percent in the last seven games.
“It was nice and you take it when it’s going well because the power play is typically a roller coaster all season,” Serratore said. “They were shooting tonight and getting good looks. The guys were seeing it a little better tonight and that was gratifying.”
Bemidji State’s penalty kill was also flawless and shut down all three Huntsville power plays. BSU has killed 22 straight opposing power plays in span lasting just over five games.
Mattson, a former Holy Angels High School standout, scored his first career goal for the Beavers in the third period when he ended a breakaway with a forehand move to beat Griggs between the legs.
Mattson was one of Bemidji State’s underclassmen to play a role in the weekend series. Mattson along with regular healthy scratches Tyler Tosunian, Kyle Brodie, Garrett Ladd and Mitch Cain all saw ice time against the Chargers. Tosunian assisted on Illo’s goal and Mattson assisted on Hunt’s goal for their first collegiate points.
“It was a good win by our guys,” Serratore said. “We had some young guys score some goals and we played well defensively again. Our power play was clicking, so overall I thought it was a complete game by us and a good win before break.”
Scoring Summary
UAH 0 0 0 – 0
BSU 2 2 1 – 5
First period – 1, BSU McLeod 5 (George, Hunt), :31. 2, BSU Illo 4 (Wacker, Tosunian), 12:12, (pp).
Second period – 3, BSU Wacker 3 (Orban, Kinne), 1:16, (pp). 4, BSU Hunt 4 (Prapvessis, Mattson), 15:26, (pp).
Third period – 5, BSU Mattson 1 (unassisted), 13:28.
Shots on goal – UAH, 9-6-12-27. BSU, 7-11-10-28.
Goalies – UAH, Saunders (14-10, 35:26), Griggs (14-13, 24:34). BSU, Walsh (27-27).
Power plays – UAH, 0-for-3. BSU, 3-for-5.
A- 3,257.
Photo Gallery
All photos by Eric Stromgren.
Aaron McLeod scores BSU's first goal on Clarke Saunders
Huntsville's Graeme Strukoff checks Tyler Tosunian
Garrett Ladd, Nickolas Gatt and Clarke Saunders
Huntsville's Jeff Vanderlught
Garrett Ladd
Shea Walters is tripped up in front of Jeff Vanderlught
Brad Hunt and Brice Geoffrion
Huntsville's Alex Allan skates as Sam Windle pins Michael Webley to the boards
Danny Mattson
Bemidji State goalie Andrew Walsh, right, tracks the puck as Bemidji State's Drew Fisher, left, defends Alabama-Huntsville's Tyler Kotlarz, center.
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