HOUGHTON, Mich. – With the Michigan Tech Huskies returning to the friendly confines of the MacInnes Student Ice Arena fresh off a 4-0 blanking of the No. 14 Bowling Green Falcons and the Bemidji State Beavers coming in having been swept by the Lake Superior State Lakers, Friday’s matchup, with fourth place in the WCHA standings on the line, shaped up to be a good one.
When the dust settled, the Beavers’ fourth line of co-captain Jordan Heller, Ethan Somoza and Mike Soucier that combined for three of Bemidji State’s four goals in a 4-2 victory.
“Sometimes, in games like this, guys who obviously don’t get a lot of accolades, they are the heroes in this kind of game,” said Beavers head coach Tom Serratore. “They passed with flying colors. They responded. They ate up a lot of ice time.
“It was nice to see those guys have some success. That is why hockey is a team game.”
Things did not start well for the Beavers.
Huskies assistant captain Jake Lucchini took a pass as he skated down the right boards from assistant captain Joel L’Esperance and he roofed a wrist shot over the left shoulder of goaltender Michael Bitzer just 53 seconds in.
The Beavers needed nearly 10 minutes to respond, but when they did, it was Heller who did it, by crashing the net and taking advantage of a pass from Somoza, beating goaltender Robbie Beydoun, who fell over teammate Thomas Beretta when he tried to get to the shot from Heller.
With the Beavers up 2-1 midway through the second, Somoza scored his first career goal at the 12:05 mark to put the visitors up by two. He found a soft spot in the Huskies’ defense before tipping a shot from defenseman Dan Billett past Beydoun.
Heller added his second of the night and fifth of the season when he took advantage of a turnover by Huskies defenseman Mitch Meek in his own end a the 2:17 mark of the final frame.
Serratore was really pleased with the efforts of his fourth line as his group lost the services of three forwards over the course of the contest.
“We needed them,” said Serratore. “We were really shorthanded. We were down to nine forwards. I was just really proud of those guys.”
It was not all rosy for the Beavers. They had a full five-minute power play in the first period and 1:52 of a two-man advantage in the second period, but could not come up with goals on either advantage. Serratore chalked up the lack of success to bounces, which did not go their way.
The Huskies came into the night banged up, and head coach Joe Shawhan, whose team had a chance of moving ahead of the Beavers, was not pleased with the efforts of the players he had in the lineup for 60 minutes.
“With our season being on the line, with a chance for us to play for home ice, with us being at home, I thought we gave an absolutely terrible effort,” said Shawhan. “I thought our focus, our attention to detail, was terrible.”
Bitzer finished with 23 saves to earn the win, his 15th of the season.
