Senior forward Erin Cody (Roseville, Minn.) scored a natural hat trick in Friday afternoon’s contest against the St. Cloud State Huskies to help the Bemidji State University women’s hockey team pick up it’s first conference win of the season by a score of 3-2.
“In the first period, I didn’t think we played that well, but we came out of it ahead 3-0 and a lot of it had to do with a couple of goals that [Cody] scored,” said head coach Steve Sertich. “She’s that type of player that can win a game for you.”
Cody’s natural hat trick was completed in the first period as she netted an even strength goal at the 10:45 mark. The goal was started when defensman Marlee Wheelhouse (Jr., Crookston, Minn.) chipped the puck out of the neutral back toward forward Sadie Lundquist (So., Cloquet, Minn.). Lundquist dug the puck out from the boards and dished it off to Cody, who then skate down on goal. On the left side of the zone, Cody faked a move to the inside drawing SCSU tender Ashley Nixon to drop into butterfly. Cody then pulled back to the left and with half her body over the end line, fired the puck into the far corner of the net.
Four minutes later while on the penalty kill, Annie Bauerfeld (Sr., Fwd., Woodbury, Minn.) entered the offensive zone with one player to beat, but waited for Cody to enter the zone to make it a two-on-one. Bauerfeld made a nice centering pass to Cody who put the puck in the back of the net for the team’s first short-handed goal in two seasons. Montana Vichorek (Sr., Def., Moose Lake, Minn.) picked up an assist on the play.
With the period winding down, St. Cloud State’s Lisa Martinson was assessed a penalty for holding. On the power play, Vichorek had the puck up high and played it down low to Cody. Cody didn’t see anything that she liked and cycled the puck to Bauerfeld who then took the puck on net. Bauerfeld took a shot just a couple feet off to the left of the goal, but her shot was blocked by Nixon. Bauerfeld found her rebound, but again Nixon came up with the save. However, it’s the second mouse that gets the cheese as Cody crashed in on the play and put the puck back on goal to complete her natural hat trick with 24 seconds remaining in the period.
“A couple made some good plays and got me the puck, [Bauerfeld] on the second goal made a really nice pass and things opened up for me,” Cody said. “
Cody’s natural hat trick came as she scored an even-strength, short-handed, and power-play goal. The three goals also set a BSU record as the most goals scored in a single period by one player.
With a three-goal lead after the first period of play, the Beavers we’re looking to put the game out of reach from the Huskies. However, St. Cloud State battled back in the third period making it a one goal game.
In the final seconds of the game, with Nixon on the bench for an extra attacker, St. Cloud State thought they found the game-tying goal they were looking for. Fortunately for the Beavers, the official review found that the puck had been frozen and play stopped before the puck entered the net.
With the win the Beavers improve to 3-4-0 (1-2-0-0 WCHA) on the season, while the Huskies are still without a win and drop to 0-8-0 (0-5-0-0 WCHA).
Goaltender Zuzana Tomcikova (Jr., Bratislava, Slovakia) recorded 23 saves in the outing to pick up her second win on the season. She stopped multiple odd-man-rush saves, including a wide-open one timer from the six feet in front of the net.