Bemidji State started slow again Saturday, giving up an early goal to Ohio State. But the team used a dominant second period to beat Ohio State 4-2 and take three points on the weekend series.
After a night were the teams’ play mirrored each other, the Beavers stepped their game up to take sole position of third place in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association.
The Buckeyes found the net first to take 1-0 first-period lead. Jana Harrigan scored her fourth goal of the season off a Jennifer Desson rebound to beat Beaver goaltender Anik Coté.
Coming into the second period down 1-0, the Beavers skated to arguably their best individual period of play this season. They outshot the Buckeyes 17-12 and scored four goals.
Katie Ward led the Beaver scoring attack as she scored her first goal of the season, to tie the game 1-1. At the 2:33 mark of the period, Amber Fryklund faked the shot and passed to Ward to beat the OSU goaltender Natalie Lamme.
Fryklund would again be in on the scoring as she beat her former Hibbing High School teammate, Lamme, for an unassisted goal at the 3:44 mark. The goal gave the Beavers a 2-1 lead.
Guylaine Haché scored her fourth goal of the season at the 13:23 as Fryklund recorded her second assist of the game and Lisa Peters added an assist. Just 24 seconds later (13:47) the Beavers would find the net when senior assistant captain Betsy Hegland scored her first goal of the season as Caesare Stimson fed her the pass on a 2-1 break.
The Beavers took a 4-1 lead into the second intermission.
Beginning the third period with a three-goal lead is something that Bemidji State has not done much this year.
“We played a good second period and wanted to play the third period smart and I think we did that,” said head coach Bruce Olson.
The Buckeyes would score another goal to move within two goals when Emma Laaksonen beat Coté at the 12:42 mark of the period. In a last-ditch effort to gain ground, Ohio State pulled the goaltender with 2:05 remaining. The Beavers held off the Ohio State charge to get the win.
“This was a a good step for us, confidence-wise,” said Olson. “It was a really gutty performance and a good team effort. We did a good job bottling them up and Anik played well in the net.”
