MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota headed into the year as the top-ranked team in the country in what looks to be a special year for the Gophers.
On Saturday, the Gophers rode their special teams’ play to a 5-3 win over Bemidji State and completed the weekend sweep over their in-state foe. Coming off a 5-2 loss to Minnesota Friday night, Bemidji State did not go down without a fight, as this game was tied going into the third period.
The scoring started early as Markus Gerbrandt got Bemidji State off to a 1-0 lead just 2:16 into the first period.
“It was nice getting the first goal of the game,” said Bemidji State coach Tom Serratore. “I thought we had a lot of jump and we were dialed in. The first period there was obviously different from last night.”
Despite Bemidji’s strong start to the game, Minnesota took control of the play in the first period. The Gophers tied the game with a power-play goal from Connor Reilly midway through the period. Minnesota then took the lead two and a half minutes later with a goal from senior captain Kyle Rau. The Gophers finished the first period outshooting the Beavers 15-6.
In a game that saw a number of momentum swings, the Beavers came back to tie the game 10:50 into the second period. Just following the expiration of a Bemidji power play, with the Minnesota penalized player still skating back into the defensive zone, Matt Prapavessis made the score 2-2.
“Bemidji is a team and a program that is going to keep coming,” Minnesota coach Don Lucia said.
Keep coming they did, as two minutes later, the Beavers took the lead off of Gerbrandt’s second goal of the game.
“I didn’t think that we got into the offensive zone and got on top of pucks and worked hard enough below the goal line,” said Lucia of the Gophers’ second-period play.
The Gophers did manage to tie the game at three goals apiece with a Justin Kloos tally 16:40 into the second period, assisted by Sam Warning and Mike Reilly.
“Warning used his speed and pushed three guys back in their zone,” Kloos said. “I was able to spread the ice wide and of course, [Mike] Reilly made a play that a skilled defenseman does.”
In the third period, the Gophers regained the lead with a second power-play goal, this one coming from Travis Boyd, in what proved to be the game-winner.
“[Taylor] Cammarata walked down and gave it to Rau,” said Boyd. “Rau basically made the play happen. He fed an unbelievable pass through the defenseman’s legs. I ended up getting it back door and had the whole net to shoot at.”
Special teams proved to be the difference tonight, as Minnesota scored two power play goals and killed all three of their penalty kills.
“You lose the special teams battle and that was obviously the difference,” said Serratore. “They made some plays on some key moments on the power play. We had a few good looks on the power play, but we just didn’t deliver”.
Minnesota’s power play has been off to a hot start on the season.
Said Boyd of the Gophers special teams play, “We are clicking right now on the power play and that is good to see because so much of the game depends on special teams. Our penalty kill was good this weekend, too. We talk about winning the special teams battle every game and every weekend and that is a big reason why we came out with two wins this weekend.”
Minnesota scored an empty-net goal late.
The weekend sweep propels the No. 1 Gophers to a 4-0 start to the season. Minnesota will travel on the road Friday to face another in-state rival in St. Cloud State. Friday’s game at SCSU is the first game of next weekend’s home-and-home series between the two teams.
Meanwhile, Bemidji falls to 1-3 on the year. Having played two top-five teams in the country in North Dakota and Minnesota, Bemidji will look to get back to winning ways next weekend as the Beavers host Alaska.
“We have good speed and we play extremely hard, we have a good skill set,” said Serratore. “The bottom line is we have played two very good hockey teams and we need to have to carry this into our conference schedule right here. We need to play with this kind of intensity over the course of 28 games if you want to advance on and have success as a team. We have to see if we can keep this up, but I like our passion and i like our demeanor right now.”
