By Erich Neuhaus
Bemidji State’s gameplan was to use a football tactic against Niagara on Thursday — blitz and force turnovers.
That’s exactly what happened as the Beavers took it to Niagara in front of 1,021 at Dwyer Arena, beating them 3-1 to gain a four-point lead in the College Hockey America standings.
Niagara (15-12-2, 8-4-1) started the scoring first on the power play just 4:27 into the contest on Vince Rocco’s shot along the ice past Beaver goalie Matt Dalton. But that was as close as Niagara would get to a victory as Bemidji (14-14-1, 10-4-1) pounded them on the offensive side the rest of the first period.
Bemidji’s relentless pressure was a sign of what was to come the rest of the night.
“We play puck pressure,” coach Tom Serratore said. “We had good jumps and anticipated well and when you have good jump’s and anticipate well you get rewarded a little more.”
The Beavers were rewarded 9:32 in the second when Brandon Marino jumped on a rebound and put it home top-shelf tying the game 1-1. Then less than three minute’s later the Beavers took the lead for good when Matt Read’s pass to Tyler Scofield was buried home just five-feet out.
The story of the game though was the pressure through the first two periods by the Beavers. They’re forecheck led to turnovers deep in the zone and forced NU goalie Juliano Pagliero to make 10 savesin the first period. The Purple Eagles’ defense was also blocked eight shots in the first period.
And when Niagara was getting the puck out of their own end they were met by a well coached trap with two defenseman sitting on the blue line.
“Once they got that lead they kind of sat back and trapped us,” Rococo said. “And they are a tough team to play against when they have the lead like that.”
Bemidji’s last goal came on the power play with 8:48 left in the game as Tyler Lehrke came racing through the line and put a wrist shot far side on Pagliero.
After the first goal Niagara’s chances were limited through transition as their dump in’s were met by the Beavers defense, something the Purple Eagles are looking to do in tonnight’s rematch.
“When we transition from offense to defense we’re usually a pretty fast team,” Burkholder said. “But we didn’t have it tonight.”
