MINNEAPOLIS — Sophomore Jacqueline Kaasa scored twice, including the winning goal at 5:14 of the third period, as Bemidji State won, 4-2, to salvage a split of its series with Minnesota.
“I’m just really proud of our group,” coach Jim Scanlan said. “After suffering a really tough loss last night, to come back tonight and play the way we played, I’m really proud of them.”
The Beavers (6-10-2, 4-7-1-1 WCHA) took advantage of a pair of transition opportunities to decide the outcome.
“Abby Halluska, she was at the end of a shift, and [Kaasa] recognized it and she took off,” Scanlan said. “[Halluska] just made a great pass and [Kaasa] finished.”
Kaasa added an assist on Emily Bergland’s insurance tally 46 seconds later, but she had to wait longer than that to celebrate, as the referee initially waved it off, thinking the shot had hit the post, and play continued until the next stoppage.
The game may have swung on Bailey Wright’s goal at 13:17 of the second period that tied the score at 2-2.
“To go into the third period now even, it might have been the most important goal of the game,” Scanlan said.
The teams traded gritty goals in the opening minutes, Kaasa for BSU at 3:15 answered 23 seconds later by Alex Woken for the Gophers (14-5-1, 9-4-1-0 WCHA), before Grace Zumwinkle gave Minnesota its only lead early in the middle stanza.
“You get up 2-1 against a team like Bemidji, a good team, you’ve got to try to get up by two,” coach Brad Frost said. “Unfortunately, we gave one up there to make it 2-2.”
The longer the game went, the more the visitors took over play.
“We were urging our players to get going and bring some emotion,and for one reason or another, they weren’t able to do that,” Frost said.
Bemidji State outshot the hosts 28-26 on the day, allowing only 12 shots through the first 40 minutes.
“Just felt like we had opportunities, but weren’t as precise as we needed to be,” Frost said.
Goaltender Lauren Bench picked up her second win of the season, and she and her team will look for more when they host RIT on Friday and Saturday.
“I think a lot of times, it’s not who you play, it’s when you play them,” Scanlan said. “We probably caught Minnesota at a good time for us, no question. They have not had a break from week one [and are] a little banged up personnel wise. Certainly the week off for us helped, but we roll four lines pretty much throughout, and played six defensemen.”
The Gophers host Minnesota-Duluth to close out 2017.
“It’s a big rivalry series, there’s a lot of points on the line, so we need to be hungry and ready to go,” Frost said.
