Bemidji State completed a two-game nonconference sweep of the Connecticut Huskies, 2-0, Saturday in John Glas Fieldhouse, completing the program’s first back-to-back shutouts since the 1981-82 season.
The shutouts were also the first time the Beavers have gone a weekend series against the same opponent without allowing a goal since blanking Wisconsin-Superior 9-0 and 10-0, Jan. 29-30, 1971, on the road.
After dominating the Huskies, 9-0, in the series opener Friday night, a less-aggressive BSU team was still able to post the shutout. BSU outshot the Huskies 28-16 on the night, with starting Beaver goaltender Dannie Morgan saving all 16 shots he faced and earning his first career shutout.
“It was a strong effort by our defense,” Morgan said. “We didn’t let any quality shots get through. The difference in the two games was tonight we couldn’t put the puck away to take away their confidence. It turned into a dogfight and their confidence grew.”
Jeff McGill scored his fourth goal of the season at the 10:48 mark of the first, assisted by Andrew Murray and Marty Goulet. Murray’s assist gave him four points for the series. Goulet also had a big series, as his assist gave him four on the weekend.
The Huskies held BSU scoreless in the second and through nearly the entire third. Connecticut pulled starting goaltender Artie Imbriano for an extra skater with one minute to play in the game, but with 18 seconds left in regulation Bryce Methven fired a puck from BSU’s blue line that trickled across the Connecticut goalmouth for an empty-net goal to round out the scoring.
“This game was a lot more difficult than last night,” BSU head coach Tom Serratore said. “We saw better defense by UConn, but we found a way to win. We got a sweep and hope it will carry over into next weekend.”
With the win, Bemidji State improved to 9-0-0 all-time against current members of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
Bemidji State evened its season mark at 3-3-0 overall with the win, while Connecticut fell to 0-3-1.
