Bemidji State won game two of its WCHA series versus St. Cloud State, 6-1, Saturday at the John Glas Fieldhouse. BSU’s offense exploded for a season-high in goals and 15 points.
Sophomore Katie Ward led the scoring attack with four points, doubling her season output.
“We needed someone to step up and that is exactly what Katie did today,” said BSU head coach Bruce Olson. “She has great hands on her and is a great player.”
Ward got the Beavers on the board early in the second period after the teams skated to a scoreless first.
At 13:04, freshman Cassi Petsch put Bemidji State up 2-0 with her second goal in as many days. She was assisted on the play by Amber Fryklund and Lisa Peters.
Just 20 seconds later the Beavers again found the back of the net when Ward scored her second of the day with help from Sarah Zuelke. Betsy Hegland scored with 54 seconds remaining in the period as Ward added her first assist of the afternoon as BSU would take a 4-0 lead into the second intermission.
After the break the Beavers picked up right where they left off as BSU winger Kerri McEwen scored a power-play goal just 52 seconds into the period as Ward again added the assisting pass, along with Jenny Schnickel.
The Huskies came right back and scored their only goal of the game at the 1:10 mark of the period when Abby Cooper scored her sixth goal of the season as Kobi Kawamoto added her second point of the series with the assist.
The Beavers added one more goal when Nicky Kluck took a pass from Carly Napier and Peters to bring the score to 6-1 and give the Beavers the much-needed win.
Jill Luebke was in net for the Beavers and kept the team in the game in the early staged of the game. In the first and second periods she faced multiple odd man chances for the Huskies and fended every one of them away. She made a career-high 35 saves and allowed just one goal for the freshman’s second win of the season.
“Its amazing to see what happens when you come out hard and get pucks on the net. We were aggressive on every puck,” added Olson.
The win gave BSU its first series sweep at home since playing host to Wayne State Oct. 19-20, 2001, and puts BSU in sole position of third place in the WCHA and keeps its chance to make the WCHA Final Five alive. Meanwhile, the Huskies will now have to make up six points on the Beavers in just six games.
