The Bemidji State women’s hockey team may have fallen out of the National Polls prior to their trip to Minneapolis, but the Beavers played like a nationally ranked team against the #2 Minnesota Gophers.

Friday night at Ridder Arena there was a moment of silence prior to the announcement of the starting lineups in honor of Nicole Anderson, the older sister of Gopher freshman Stephanie Anderson (pictured above) and the cousin of former Beaver hockey player Lexy Parenteau. Nicole passed away unexpectedly on January 16, 2012 at the age of 23. She went through the nursing program at Bemidji State University and Northwest Technical College.

The Beavers took a one nothing lead in the first period of Friday’s game with a goal from freshman Kristin Huber. Kimberly Lieder would add another goal early in the second period before the Gophers answered back. Minnesota would take a 3-2 lead in the third to record the win. Mackenzie Thurston tallied the assists on both Beaver goals.

Saturday night, the roles were reversed as the Gophers took a 2-0 lead before Bemidji State’s Sadie Lundquist and Kristin Huber would answer back to tie up the game. Minnesota would go ahead in the third for the 3-2 lead. The Beavers pulled goaltender Zuzana Tomcikova for the extra attacker and with 49 seconds left in regulation Erika Wheelhouse would battle for a loose puck out in front of the net to tie up the game.

Huber finished the weekend with two goals while Lundquist had a goal and an assist to remain the team’s points leader. Lundquist now has 10 goals and 19 assists for 29 points on the year.

Montana Vichorek added an assist this past weekend as well, which put her at top of the BSU record books as the all-time leader in assists by a defenseman. It was her 17th of the season.

The Beavers would take the Gophers through overtime and into the shootout. Minnesota would get the extra point from the shootout win taking 5 out of 6 possible points in the weekend series.

BSU’s Tomcikova would play one of her finest weekends between the pipes as she stopped a total of 85 shots on net. Read Zuzana’s blog post about this past weekend HERE.

For audio highlights from the weekend, check out Kelly Schultz’s Gameday Blogs:
Friday
Saturday

For Friday’s box score, click HERE

For Saturday’s box score, click HERE