Bemidji State's Jordan George, left, skates with the puck as Denver's Scott Mayfield defends during the first period of Friday night's game in Denver. Pioneer Photo/Eric Stromgren
DENVER – The second period spiraled out of control for the Bemidji State men’s hockey team in Friday night’s 6-3 loss to No. 16 Denver at Magness Arena.
The Pioneers trailed 1-0 after the first period and scored five times in the second period to put an end to Bemidji State’s five-game winning streak.
“I thought we came out buzzing there for the first 20 (minutes), took it to them and quieted the crowd down,” BSU junior Jordan George said. “The second period we got away from our hockey and we didn’t compete. Five goals by them and it’s pretty tough to come back from a 5-2 deficit.”
Denver’s Drew Shore scored two goals and had three assists to reach 100 career points. Ty Loney scored twice and Joey LaLeggia also scored in Denver’s second-period outburst.
Kyle Brodie and Jordan George scored for the Beavers, which had the game tied 2-2 six minutes into the second period before the Pioneers pulled away. BSU goalie Andrew Walsh finished with 18 saves.
“The second period was a tough one,” BSU head coach Tom Serratore said. “Not only the power play goal, but we just let in some goals we probably shouldn’t have. We would have liked to have some of those goals back. Good teams and good players find ways to score and they did that in the second period.”
Friday’s loss was Bemidji State’s first since the 3-2 loss to the Pioneers on Dec. 9. Bemidji State (11-10-2, 5-8-2 WCHA) and Denver (12-8-3, 7-5-3 WCHA) conclude the weekend series Saturday night at 8:37 p.m at Magness Arena.
“We have to be the hardest-working team in the country tomorrow I think,” BSU defenseman Jake Areshenko said. “We have to do the little things right and we have to be mean. I think we have to throw the body around and that’s going to be key for tomorrow.”
Denver goalie Adam Murray had 27 saves and started in place of Juho Olkinuora, who started the two previous games against the BSU.
Brodie beat Murray for the only goal of the first period on a slap shot from the blue line for his first goal of the year. The Northglenn, Colo. native was playing in his sixth game this season and it was his second career goal.
Denver responded in quick fashion in the opening seconds of the second period.
Loney squeezed a backhand over Walsh’s shoulder two minutes in and Shore scored a rebound at the edge of the crease four minutes in to give the Pioneers a 2-1 lead.
George tied the score for the last time when he powered a slap shot through Murray at 6:17 for his team-leading 12th goal of the year. Brodie assisted on the play.
Denver scored the three times to close out the period. LaLeggia picked the corner with a slap shot during a 4-on-3 power play, Shore scored at the crease two minutes later and Loney wrapped a shot around Walsh’s legs with 2:32 remaining.
Bemidji State cut the deficit to 5-3 when Brance Orban scored on the power play with 11:22 left in the game.
The Beavers had two power plays in the final seven minutes of the game but could not convert. George had BSU’s best chance with three minutes to play but his stick snapped on the one-timer attempt at the edge of the post.
Chris Knowlton iced the game for the Pioneers on an empty-net goal with 2:14 to play and Shore assisted on the play for his 100th career point.
“It was a great first period on the road,” Serratore said. “We outshot them and had territorial advantage, we got the lead. The third was pretty good though we needed a little luck on our side. It’s pretty hard to score three goals against Denver in their building.”
Scoring Summary
BSU 1 1 1 – 3
DU 0 5 1 – 6
First period – 1, BSU Brodie 1 (Orban), 5:19.
Second period – 2, DU Loney 4 (D. Shore), 2:28. 3, DU D. Shore 14 (N. Shore, LaLeggia), 4:26, (pp). 4, BSU George 12 (Brodie), 6:17. 5, DU LaLeggia 9 (Zucker, D. Shore), 12:04, (pp). 6, DU D. Shore (Zucker, Mayfield), 13:54, (pp). 7, DU Loney 5 (Phillips, Salazar), 16:28.
Third period – 8, BSU, Orban 4 (Mattson, Illo), 8:38, (pp). 9, DU Knowlton 6 (D. Shore) 17:36, (en).
Shots on goal – BSU, 10-10-10-30. DU, 5-9-10-24.
Goalies – BSU, Walsh (24-18). DU, Murray (30-27).
Power plays – BSU, 1-for-5. DU, 1-for-4.
Photo Gallery
All photos by Eric Stromgren unless noted in caption.
Radoslav Illo and Jason Zucker
Kyle Brodie, center, celebrates his first-period goal with Sam Windle, left, and Brance Orban, right,
Drew Fisher
Brance Orban and Joey LaLeggia
Paul Phillips, Adam Murray and Shea Walters
Adam Murray and Jamie MacQueen
Aaron McLeod
Joey LaLeggia and David Boehm
Jordan George scores in the second period. Photo by Joe Shea.
Drew Shore scores in the second period. Photo by Joe Shea
Ty Loney, top, scores for Denver in the second period. Photo by Joe Shea.
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