The Bemidji State University women's hockey team dropped a 3-0 decision Saturday afternoon to the No. 3-ranked Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs in its final game at the John Glas Fieldhouse.
The decision gave UMD the weekend sweep and BSU is now 0-46-2 all-time against the Bulldogs.
In Columbus, Ohio, Ohio State University picked up a shoot-out win, forcing a tie for fifth place in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association with Bemidji State (10-17-7, 9-12-7-3 WCHA). Ohio State owns the tiebreaker over the Beavers, and BSU will drop to the sixth seed for playoffs, traveling to St. Cloud State for the first-round series.
The tie for fifth place is the highest finish for Bemidji State in the WCHA since the induction of eight teams into the conference.
"I think the effort was there and we had good chances, we just couldn't find a way to score today," said head coach Steve Sertich. "Our specialty teams were OK today, and I've said before that for us to win in this league we need to find ways of scoring on the power play."
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Special teams was an important factor in the game for BSU as the Beavers had six power-play opportunities while going on the penalty kill four times. Bemidji State was unable to convert on any of the man-advantages, and successfully killed off three of four penalties.
The Bulldogs controlled flow of the game even though the Beavers had more shots on goal, 34-25. Minnesota Duluth scored one goal each period en route to their shutout victory.
UMD goalie Jennifer Harss stopped all 34 Beaver shots to help her team win first place in the WCHA.
Playing in their last regular season games of their careers wer seniors Jackie Robertson, Franny Dorr and Nicole Rawlings.
Bemidji State will travel to St. Cloud for a best-of-three-games series against the Huskies starting Friday.
Minnesota Duluth 1 1 1 - 3
Bemidji State 0 0 0 - 0
First period - 1, UMD, Blais (Fridfinnson, Wilson) 16:08. Penalties - Murray, UMD (interference) 5:39; Thurston, BSU (tripping) 7:19; Dorr, BSU (hooking) 13:10; Dodge, UMD (tripping) 18:26.
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Second period - 2, UMD, Blais (Rasmussen, Wong 16:53 (pp). Penalties - Larocque, UMD (hooking) :20; Visser, BSU (roughing) 1:37; Thibault, UMD (tripping) 2:20; Erickson, BSU (tripping) 8:51; Erickson, BSU (holding) 16:30.
Third period - 3, UMD, Rasmussen (Wong) 2:11. Penalties - Dodge, UMD (cross-checking) 8:39; Larocque, UMD (checking) 13:31.
Shots on goal - UMD 8-7-10 25; BSU 8-16-10 34.
Power plays - UMD 1 of 4; BSU 0 of 6.
Goalies - UMD, Jennifer Harss 22-8-2 (60:00 minutes, 34 shots-34 saves); BSU, McElhinney, Alana 2-8-2 (60:00, 25-22).
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