Bemidji State completes sweep of Lake Superior State with 5-1 victory

The Bemidji State University men’s hockey team used a 5-1 victory over Lake Superior State University to earn its first Western Collegiate Hockey Association series sweep of the season and Head Coach Tom Serratore his 300th victory Saturday.

Eleven different BSU players logged at least on point as the Beavers evened their record at 3-3-2 overall and improved to 3-1-0-0 in league play. Ross Armour led the charge. The sophomore forward logged the third multi-point game of his career posting an assist and an empty-net goal.

Bemidji State got on the board in at the 13:54 mark of the first period when Adam Brady netted his third goal of the weekend. His power-play marker stood as the Beavers’ second goal on the man advantage in 22 tries this season and snapped a 0-for-12 streak. However, the lead would disappear before the period came to an end. LSSU’s Alex Ambrosio netted his second goal of the season with just 47 seconds to go.

BSU kicked the pedal to the floor as the second period got underway. Alex Adam was on the left post to corral a rebound off the pad of the LSSU goaltender and deposit his second goal of the season at the 2:03 mark. Ethan Somoza finished a tic-tac-toe rush with his first lamplighter of the season at the 3:24 mark. Aaron Miller and Armour were credited with assists on the play. Before the second period came to an end, Nick Cardelli put the Beavers up 4-1 with a terrific individual effort goal. The sophomore won a battle for the puck on the sidewall just inside the red line. After being tied up and spun around by a defender, he muscled his way loose, picked up the puck and scored his first goal of 2019-20.

Bemidji State gave the Lakers a bit of life with 2:55 to play the third period. Miller was whistled for a five-minute major for checking from behind. The penalty set LSSU up with five minutes of power-play time, but the BSU penalty-kill unit was up to the task.

With just over four minutes to play, LSSU pulled its goaltender to attempt to force the action with an extra attacker, but the tactic failed. Armour forced a turnover in front of the net and maneuvered around a Laker blueliner to backhand in his second goal of the season to put the Beavers up by four goas with 3:15 to play.

BSU’s goaltender, Zach Driscoll, stopped 18 of the 19 shots he faced en route to a victory. He improved to 3-2-1 this season.

Already second on BSU’s all-time coaching wins list, Serratore becomes the 14th current NCAA Division I men’s hockey head coach to reach the 300 wins plateau.

The Beavers, now 3-3-2 overall and 3-1-0-0 in league play, hits the road next week for a two-game WCHA series in Big Rapids, Mich. The Beavers will go toe-to-toe with Ferris State University (2-6-0; 0-4-0-0 WCHA) beginning Friday at 6:07 p.m. and again Saturday at 5:07 p.m. from Ewigleben Ice Arena.