No. 3 Gophers survive late push from Beavers to take series opening victory

BSU Men’s Hockey falls 5-3 at No. 3 Minnesota in series opener

The Bemidji State University Men’s Hockey team out-shot No. 3 University of Minnesota 16-6 in the final period but the Gophers survived the late push by the Beavers to earn a 5-3 victory in game one of their non-conference series at 3M Arena at Mariucci in Minneapolis Thursday night.

Senior Mattias Sholl made 34 saves for the Beavers while fifth-year senior Eric Martin, juniors Reilly Funk and Kirklan Irey each scored. Funk scored in his third consecutive game and added an assist for his first two-point effort as a Beaver.

Minnesota dominated the first two periods and out-shot the Beavers 33-9 through the first 40 minutes. The Gophers struck first with a goal from Brody Ziemer 3:55 into the opening frame and quickly went up 2-0 when Brody Lamb scored a power-play goal 1:47 later.

The Beavers answered with a power-play goal of their own with 3:54 left in the frame after Martin tipped home a shot by junior Vince Corcoran to score his second goal of the season.

The Gophers wasted little time to respond and just 45 seconds later, Oliver Moore put UM up by two once again with an even-strength goal.

The first period ended with Minnesota holding the 3-1 lead over the Beavers but 6:09 into the second period, Funk blocked a shot in the defensive zone and the rebound sprung him for a breakaway where he beat goaltender Nathan Airey to score his third goal of the season.

The Gophers responded for a second time and 3:41 later, John Mittelstadt put the UM back up by two at 4-2.

The teams would head into the second intermission with the score unchanged but the Beavers got new life in the third period and dominated play in the final frame. The Beavers attacked and pressured the Gophers and their hard work paid off when Irey scored his second of the season after finding a loose puck in front of Airey.

The Beavers continued to pressure looking for the tying goal and thought they had it but just missed when senior Austin Jouppi rang the puck off the crossbar.

With two minutes left to play, head coach Tom Serratore pulled Sholl in favor of the extra attacker but Lamb and the Gophers took advantage scoring the game-clinching, empty-net goal with 1:06 remaining.

Sholl turned aside 34 of the 38 shots he faced in the game, his highest save total of the season but earned the loss falling to 3-6-0. The Beavers fell to 4-6-0 on the season while the Gophers won their ninth consecutive game and improved to 10-1-0.

The teams will be back in action for game two Saturday night in Bemidji. The teams will drop the puck for the series finale at Sanford Center at 6:07 p.m. Tickets are available now and can be purchased at ticketmaster.com or at the Sanford Center Box Office.