Sixth-ranked Bemidji State\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s shot at earning a No. 1 regional seed in the NCAA Tournament remained very much alive on Friday as the Beavers downed future WCHA rival Nebraska-Omaha 3-1 at Qwest Center Omaha.<\/p>\n
The host Mavericks (now 17-14-6) had plenty to play for as well, having come into this week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s USCHO.com poll at No. 19, thus placing themselves however delicately onto the bubble for postseason play. UNO had gone 7-2-1 in its last 10 games, and after knocking off then-No. 1 Miami on the road last weekend, the Mavericks seemed primed to carry their red-hot play into this week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important non-conference series.<\/p>\n
BSU (22-7-2) rarely looked cowered on Friday, though, and second period goals from forwards Matt Read and Jamie MacQueen proved to be the difference as the Beavers earned their first-ever win over UNO after four failed attempts, the last coming just over seven years ago.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We know (the Mavericks) and how good they are,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d BSU head coach Tom Serratore said about a UNO team that outshot the Beavers 25-17 on the night. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t say enough about how we responded, and our guys emptied the tanks tonight.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
UNO had almost been scoring for fun recently, averaging over four goals scored per game since Jan. 22, but the Beavers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 quickness on Friday kept the Mavericks\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 potent offense relatively grounded. What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more, BSU\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s collective ability to burst down both ends of the ice also benefited the Beavers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 offense in the game, as well. <\/p>\n
Read\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 17th goal of the season, coming at 2:40 of the second period, came after linemate Jordan George blocked a long — and, it appeared, offside — shot from a UNO defenseman before zooming in the opposite direction on a 2-on-1 rush with Read. <\/p>\n
As George barreled deep into the UNO zone, he fed a cross-ice pass to Read, who then scored past UNO goaltender Jeremie Dupont from just outside the goalmouth to double the College Hockey America regular season champions\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 lead.<\/p>\n
MacQueen then appeared to put the game on ice with six minutes left in Friday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s middle frame, skating uncontested into the slot in the UNO zone before beating Dupont with a vicious wrist shot that rang the inside of the net\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s frame before crossing the goal line.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153That was the difference in the game, when he put that away,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d UNO head coach Dean Blais said about MacQueen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eighth goal of the season. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We were, I thought, outplaying them and outshooting them, and then we were down 2-0. <\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153They didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t give us a whole lot, but we didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t give up a whole lot, either. Look at the shot chart from the second period, and they scored on both chances. They were opportunistic, and we weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Rich Purslow pulled a goal back for UNO 1:29 into the third period with an inch-perfect shot from the left point that found its way past BSU goaltender Dan Bakala. Purslow\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 13th goal of the campaign wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t enough, however, and the Beavers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 senior forward Tyler Lehrke put the game away with a long-range empty-net goal with 28 seconds left on the clock.<\/p>\n
Serratore wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t short on general praise for his team following its victory on Friday, but he knew that his Beavers will have to step up their game if they want to sweep the weekend series when the two teams meet again on Saturday in Omaha.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153UNO obviously had a territorial advantage in this game, and we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want that to carry over into tomorrow,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Serratore said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But we just have to be ready to respond again tomorrow. This is college hockey, and at this time of year, you have to treat every game like it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a game seven in the Stanley Cup playoffs.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sixth-ranked Bemidji State\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s shot at earning a No. 1 regional seed in the NCAA Tournament remained very much alive on Friday as the Beavers downed future WCHA rival Nebraska-Omaha 3-1 at Qwest Center Omaha. The host Mavericks (now 17-14-6) had plenty to play for as well, having come into this week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s USCHO.com poll at No. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10279"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10279"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=10279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}