Mathias Dahlstrom stopped 32 of 33 shots faced Saturday at Sanford Center, as he and the Northern Michigan University men’s hockey team completed a Western Collegiate Hockey Association sweep over Bemidji State University, 3-1.
The Beavers, who had six chances on the power play, were unable to take advantage of opportunities and saw the game and series slip away midway through the second period.
Northern Michigan took a 1-0 lead at the 15:46 mark of the first stanza. Sami Salminen threaded a pass through the crease to Cohen Adair on the left post. Cohen potted his fourth of the season.
The goal was reviewed by officials, but stood.
The Beavers evened the score 1:09 later when senior forward Radoslav Illo (Bystrica, Slovakia) deflected a NMU pass to himself deep in the BSU zone. He fired a centering pass to Jeff Jubinville (Sr., F, Edmonton, Alberta) streaking down the slot and the senior tapped his third goal of 2013-14 into a virtually empty net.
BSU goaltender Andrew Walsh (Jr., Dawson Creek, British Columbia) faced only five shots during the first 20 minutes of action as the Beavers outshot the Wildcats 10-5 in the period buoyed by four power-play chances, including 1:52 on the man advantage that carried into the second period.
With BSU coming off its fifth power-play chance of the evening, NMU forward Reed Seckle corralled the puck kicked aside by NMU goaltender Mathias Dahlstrom, skated it threw the neutral zone and found Stephan Vigier, who beat Walsh high glove side to give the Wildcats the lead at the 13:51 mark of the second.
Northern Michigan would not relinquish the lead.
Opening the third trailing 2-1, Bemidji State outshot NMU 14-9 in the period, but was unable to make up any ground. The Wildcats would add an insurance goal off the stick of Jake Baker just 3:30 into the final frame. BSU pulled its goaltender with 2:33 to go, but could find the back of the net.
Despite the teams combining for nine penalties and nearly 17 minutes on the man advantage, special teams play didn’t factor into the scoring. NMU finished the game 0-for-3 on the power play, while BSU was 0-for-6.
Walsh made 21 saves in the game and backstopped a BSU penalty-kill unit that kept the Wildcats off the board, but was tagged with his ninth loss of the season after surrendering all three of NMU’s goals. His record dips to 5-9-3 on the season.
The Beavers, now 5-11-6 overall and 5-7-4 in WCHA play, look to shake an eight-game winless streak (0-4-4) Jan. 10-11 when they travel to Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. to battle league counterpart Lake Superior State University. The two-game set will get underway at 6:37 p.m. Friday. Saturday’s series finale is set for a 6:07 p.m. opening face off.