[photoshelter-gallery g_id=”G0000jNQqQAiA51k” g_name=”20160130-NSCC-BemidjiSt-Minnesota-JGR” f_show_caption=”t” f_show_slidenum=”t” img_title=”casc” pho_credit=”iptc” f_link=”t” f_bbar=”t” fsvis=”f” width=”500″ height=”375″ bgcolor=”#AAAAAA” bgtrans=”t” btype=”old” bcolor=”#CCCCCC” crop=”f” trans=”xfade” tbs=”4000″ f_ap=”t” linkdest=”c” f_fullscreen=”f” f_constrain=”f” twoup=”f” f_topbar=”f” f_bbarbig=”” f_htmllinks=”f” f_enable_embed_btn=”f” f_show_watermark=”f” f_send_to_friend_btn=”f” f_smooth=”f” f_mtrx=”f” f_up=”f” target=”_self” wmds=”llQ6QNgpeC.p1Ucz7U.f3Noxesx3pWw6odJFJ4rmqtGBbCOh8J2LLWUtbLxsySh4jIgXxA–” ]
ST. PAUL, Minn. — For the second straight year, Bemidji State came into the North Star College Cup as the team that could be considered an afterthought, and for the second straight year the Beavers will play in the tournament’s championship game.
Markus Gerbrandt scored a power-play goal at the 16:06 mark of the third period to break a 2-2 tie and help give the Beavers a 4-2 win over Minnesota on Friday evening.
The power play was a result of a good rush by Bemidji State where Cory Ward had two good shots to break the tie and John Parker had another. Nick Seeler took a cross-checking penalty for the Gophers and Gerbrandt tipped in a shot from Gerry Fitzgerald about halfway through the power play.
“The biggest thing on that power play was that we won two faceoffs,” Bemidji State coach Tom Serratore said. “We won the first faceoff and got a shot on net, they froze it, and then we won the second faceoff. By winning faceoffs, you’re going to possess the puck, you’re going to get some space, and that bought some time for Gerry to get that shot thorough.”
The Beavers outshot the Gophers 33-32 in the game. Gerbrandt added an empty-net goal with around one minute left in the game to seal the deal for Bemidji State.
“It’s a big win; that’s a good hockey team,” Serratore said. “We’re playing in the metro area, there’s a lot of Gophers hockey fans in the stands. They’re one of the hottest teams in the country over the last six to eight games. Our guys played well.”
Minnesota’s Connor Reilly got the scoring started on Saturday when he deposited a cookie-rebound off of Michael Bitzer’s right pad and netted his fourth goal of the season.
“It’s not about Bitzer,” Serratore said of the two goals allowed. “We didn’t pick up our backcheck on the first one and the second one was the same thing. Minnesota is a rush-offense team; both their goals were on the rush, and you have to concentrate and you have to be really focused away from the puck.
“You get mesmerized by the puck when you’re playing Minnesota because they do a lot of crisscrossing and they put a lot of pressure on you and it creates soft gaps. You can’t take your eye off your man for a second because Minnesota can make a lot of plays.”
Bemidji State tied the game at the 7:30 mark of the second period when John Parker got a couple attempts to hammer a rebound home. His second attempt at it wound up behind Eric Schierhorn. Gerbrandt and Kyle Bauman assisted on Parker’s goal.
Justin Kloos scored one of the easier goals of his career in the third period when a shot from the corner squeaked past Bitzer and came to a rest right in the middle of the goal crease. Kloos had been crashing the net and slid his 10th goal into the wide-open cage to give the Gophers a short-lived lead.
“Bemidji’s a good team, they’re a hard team to play against,” Minnesota coach Don Lucia said. “They played the game just like we thought they would and they’ve got a veteran group of forwards out there. I don’t think we did enough to play behind their three freshmen (defenders) and put enough pressure on them.”
Kloos, the Gophers captain, didn’t hide his disappointment with the game’s result, saying he and the rest of the team were “pissed off.”
“Honestly, we played pretty poor all night,” he said. “Nothing changed once we got the lead. I got a lucky bounce for the second one and we didn’t really earn it at all tonight so we got what we deserved.”
Kloos added that he was “embarrassed” for himself and the team and challenged everyone, especially the upperclassmen, to come back better tomorrow.
“We’ve been digging ourselves out of a hole since the first week of the season,” he said. “We’ve been playing pretty good hockey for the last month and then to come out and play like this was really disappointing.”
Cory Ward evened the score again at the 11:00 mark of the third when he controlled a puck in the offensive zone, skated to the top of the circles, and let loose a wrist shot that seemed to have eyes as it found its way past Schierhorn.
“Our guys stuck with it,” Serratore said. “They had good legs, we had good pressure, we managed the puck well. I though it was just a really good 60-minute effort by our guys.”
