Bemidji State will have to wait for another day to clinch its berth in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association Final Five.
The St. Cloud State Huskies, who earlier in the week learned their head coach, Kerry Brodt Wethington, would be resigning at the end of the season, rode a four-goal effort from Roxanne Stang to keep their own fading WCHA Tournament hopes alive with a 6-3 win over Bemidji State Friday afternoon at the National Hockey Center.
After an innocuous-enough first period, which saw the teams take a scoreless tie into the first intermission and both goaltenders save 11 shots apiece, Roxanne Stang got the Huskies on the board with her 18th goal of the season just 1:01 into the second period. Bemidji State would answer 10 minutes later, as Katie Ward picked up her ninth goal of the season on a power-play opportunity at 11:55 of the second to pull the Beavers even at a goal apiece.
From there, Stang would take control of the game. She answered BSU’s equalizing tally with her second goal of the afternoon just 32 seconds later, then needed just an additional 1:32 to complete her natural hat trick, picking up her third goal at 14:09 of the second period on the power-play.
The Huskies would get the eventual game-winning goal from Erin McNamara, again on a power-play opportunity, at 2:03 of the third period to put St. Cloud State ahead 4-1, and BSU would get no closer than two goals the rest of the contest. Stang nailed her fourth goal of the contest at 15:25 of the third, and Abby Cooper capped the 6-3 victory with an empty-net goal with 42 seconds to play in regulation.
Stang’s four goals, completing her fourth career hat-trick, are the most surrendered by BSU to a single opposing player since Minnesota’s Nadine Muzerall hit the Beavers for five lamp-lighters in a 10-0 Gopher win, Jan. 22, 2000 in Minneapolis. She led a St. Cloud State-record group of three Huskies with four points in the contest, as Andrea Keller had four assists and Cooper had a goal and three assists.
Anik Cote started in net for BSU and picked an inopportune time for her worst outing of the season. She saved 30 shots for BSU, but allowed five goals to suffer her first loss since Jan. 13 against Minnesota. Cote’s record fell to 3-3-3 for the season.
Laura Gieselman saved 30 shots for St. Cloud State, allowing three goals, to earn the win and improve to 4-14-0 on the season.
Bemidji State fell to 11-10-8 with today’s loss and held at 18 points in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (6-9-6). St. Cloud State improved to 6-22-1 on the season and improved its WCHA point total to 11 (5-13-1), remaining mathematically alive for one of the five positions in the WCHA Final Five. The teams wrap up their two-game series Saturday afternoon at the National Hockey Center. Opening faceoff is scheduled for 3:05 p.m. Central time.
