Following a major three-point weekend at Alabama-Huntsville, coupled by a Robert Morris sweep over Niagara, the Bemidji State men's hockey team has vaulted into the top spot of the College Hockey America standings as the regular season hits the home stretch.
With only six regular season games remaining, the Beavers (13-9-4, 8-2-4 CHA, 20 points) hold a one-point lead over Niagara (17-10-3, 8-3-3 CHA, 19 points). Robert Morris (11-13-1, 7-7 CHA, 14 points) has vaulted into title contention with a key series looming this weekend against BSU. Alabama-Huntsville (7-17-2, 4-9-1 CHA, nine points) and Wayne State (7-19-0, 3-9-0 CHA, six points), will play the role of spoiler down the stretch.
The Beavers followed up a 5-5 tie Friday with a fine 3-1 win over UAH Saturday. It marked the first time in the BSU NCAA DI era that the Beavers left Huntsville without at least one loss.
"It's the best we've ever done down there," said BSU head coach Tom Serratore. "We'll take it. Now we're in a position where we control our own destiny; the title is ours to win.
"We did a bit of scoreboard watching last weekend to see how Robert Morris and Niagara were doing. Now that we have the lead, we don't have to worry about that anymore. We can concentrate on controlling the things we can control."
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After the wild 5-5 tie Friday, the Beavers came out strong in Saturday's finale, taking a 1-0 first-period lead on a goal by Tyler Scofield just 40 seconds into the game.
The Beavers had a narrow 15-14 shot advantage, but Serratore said he felt the Beavers played well enough to have a 5-0 lead.
"Huntsville got some great goaltending from (UAH goalie Marc Narduzzi)," he said. "It kept the score close, but we really played well."
UAH turned the tables in the second period, Serratore continued, and the momentum swung back to the home team. Grant Sellinger scored a power play goal with 2:12 remaining in the period to tie things at 1-1.
The turning point of the game soon occurred, however. On the very next shift after the Chargers scored, Scofield scored his second of the night to put the Beavers back into the lead.
"We were able to respond immediately after they scored," Serratore reported. "That was huge for us. They had taken it to us pretty good in that second period."
UAH indeed held a 22-6 shot advantage in the period. But BSU goalie Matt Climie played perhaps his finest 20 minutes of the season to keep BSU in the lead.
The third period was wide open, Serratore continued, with good hockey being played by both teams. BSU freshman Joey Moggach iced the big victory with a goal at 17:35 to put it away for the Beavers.
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UAH ended with a 43-27 shot advantage.
The fun now continues for the Beavers as the squad faces another huge weekend, traveling to Pittsburgh to take on Robert Morris.
"Robert Morris is a huge factor in the league now," Serratore reported. "I know it's probably a cliché to say it, but it's true -- to win the league title you have to go through Robert Morris. They have a team that's coming of age -- their main players are juniors now, they work hard and get good goaltending. On top of it all, they're starting to score some goals. Robert Morris is a very difficult team to play against.
"I hope our league lead isn't short-lived."
But then the Beavers aren't playing all that bad, either. BSU extended its unbeaten streak in the CHA to 11 games (8-0-3) with the tie and win at UAH.
"Overall, I'm happy with the way we're playing right now," Serratore reported. "We're at the point now where we just have to take care of business. We want to position ourselves to be the top team going into the CHA tournament in Des Moines. And it would also be great to win the league title and hang another banner in the rafters -- that's important too."
Following the Robert Morris series, the Beavers will host UAH before closing out the CHA regular-season schedule at Wayne State. Niagara has the coming weekend off before traveling to Wayne State Feb. 16-17, hosting Robert Morris Feb. 23-24 and wrapping up the regular season by traveling to UAH March 2-3.
