Bemidji State’s Blaine Jarvis scored his second goal of the contest at the 2:56 mark of overtime, helping the Beavers complete an improbable rally from a 4-1 first-intermission deficit and stun Minnesota Duluth, 6-5, Saturday.
BSU scored the game’s final four goals, including three goals in an 8:16 span of the second period to cap a four-goal stanza, and rode a 29-save effort by goaltender Orlando Alamano off the bench to pick up the first victory in its Division I era in a game it trailed by three goals.
Entering the contest, BSU had been 0-62-0 in its Division I era when trailing by three goals in a game.
The Bulldogs scored four goals in the first 13:10 of the first period to erupt to a 4-1 lead and chase BSU starting goaltender Matt Climie.
Mason Raymond took advantage of a David Deterding interference penalty to put up a power-play goal just 1:26 after the opening faceoff to start the flurry. Drew Akins scored even-strength at the 7:35 mark; Matt Niskanen picked up a power-play goal at 10:26 following a holding call against Chris McKelvie, and MacGregor Sharp picked up an even-strength marker at 13:10 to chase Climie.
Travis Winter took advantage of an unsportsmanlike conduct call against the UMD bench for his fifth goal of the season on the power play at 12:17 of the first period to pull the Beavers within 3-1, but Sharp’s goal stopped the momentum just 53 seconds later and helped the Bulldogs recapture their three-goal edge.
At the 2:10 mark of the second period, BSU again appeared to recapture the momentum when Garrett Roth picked up his third goal of the season, even strength, to shave the Bulldog lead to 4-2. The momentum was short-lived, however, as Akins found the back of the nets for his second goal of the contest just 32 seconds later.
But UMD’s Trent Palm was caught tripping at the 9:16 mark of the second period, and the ensuing penalty opened the door for BSU’s stunning comeback. Jarvis picked up his third goal of the season on the ensuing power play at 11:15 of the period, sparking a three-goal Beaver rally over the next eight minutes which would see BSU storm back to tie the game at five goals each.
Riley Weselowski picked up his first goal of the season at the 15:37 mark to shave the Bulldog lead to a single goal, 5-4, and Shane Holman completed the comeback with his second goal of the season at the 19:31 mark.
The 5-5 tie held through the end of the second period. The Bulldogs turned up the heat on Alamano in the third period, outshooting BSU 16-7, but Alamano turned aside all 16 shots to preserve the draw and force the game into overtime.
Jarvis’s game winner came at the 2:56 mark of overtime on BSU’s first shot of the extra frame.
Alamano played 49:46 in relief for the Beavers, rescuing a rare rocky outing by Climie. Alamano turned aside 29 of the 30 UMD shots he faced en route to the second victory of his career. He saved the only shot he faced in the final 5:50 of the first period after entering the contest, stopped 12 of 13 in the second period and all 16 during UMD’s up-tempo third to improve to 2-0-0 on the season.
Climie recorded nine saves on 13 shots faced in 13:10 of work and earned no decision.
Alex Stalock took the loss for the Bulldogs; he saved 26 shots and allowed all six BSU goals. His season record fell to 3-10-3.
Jarvis scored two goals in a game for the first time in his career, and Winter led the Beavers with three points. Winter scored BSU’s lone first-period goal, then assisted on the first and fourth goals during BSU’s second-period rally. Ryan Miller had two assists and Roth and Weselowski had a goal and an assist apiece to round out a group of five Beavers with multiple points in the contest.
Bemidji State’s six goals are its most-ever in a game against the Bulldogs, surpassing the previous mark of five goals — set in BSU’s last two wins in the series. BSU has now won each of its last four meetings with Minn.-Duluth and improves to 6-15 in the all-time series with the Bulldogs. However, BSU is 6-4 in the last 10 meetings in the series, and has won each of the last three meetings in Duluth.
The comeback victory gave BSU a four-game winning streak and helped extend its unbeaten streak to seven games (5-0-2). The seven-game unbeaten streak is tied for the longest at BSU since the program went Division I in 1999; the Beavers previously assembled a 6-0-1 run from Feb. 22-March 15, 2003.
