Nathan Wells
Special To The Pioneer
MINNEAPOLIS - Stephanie Anderson was the closest. Returning home, both to the Twin Cities and from winning a gold medal last week with Team USA at the Four Nations Cup, the North St. Paul native had Bemidji State’s best opportunity to get on the scoreboard in a game featuring two of the top five defenses in the nation.
Trailing 1-0 early in the second period, Anderson found herself on a breakaway. Only Minnesota goaltender Amanda Leveille was in front of her. Anderson, who received the largest cheer pregame as one of four Beavers playing near their homes, went left and was stopped by Leveille at the last second.
So was a slapshot on the ensuing shift.
“If I would have held the puck for two more seconds I would have had a full net to slide it in, but (Leveille) made a really good stop and another one on one of my slapshots,” Anderson said. “She played really well tonight.”
That was the kind of night it was for the Beavers at Ridder Arena. Leveille stopped all 18 shots faced and Minnesota (10-1-0, 8-1-0-0 WCHA) and its offense did the rest, snapping Bemidji State’s four-game winning streak with a 4-0 victory.
The loss dropped No. 4/5 BSU (10-3-2, 7-3-1-0 WCHA) from second place to third in the WCHA behind No. 1 Wisconsin and No. 3 Minnesota.
Despite being on the wrong end of a shutout, Beavers head coach Jim Scanlan was happy with his team’s performance.
“I thought we generated more quality chances today than any of the five games we played against them last year, believe it or not,” said Scanlan, whose team took five of six points against Minnesota in Minneapolis last season. “If we play that hard and give that kind of effort you’re always going to have a chance. That’s all I can ask.”
Bemidji State nearly scored off the opening faceoff before the Gophers settled down to take a 1-0 lead on Cara Piazza’s seventh goal of the season.
Brittni Mowat, who made 31 saves Friday, ended up being tested throughout the night. Her defense was tasked with slowing down a Minnesota offense which came in averaging 6.20 goals per game. The Beavers were successful for the first half of the game before three goals by Kelly Pannek, Dani Cameranesi and Kate Schipper in the second put any hopes of a comeback out of reach.
“I thought Brit played well enough and gave us a chance,” Scanlan said.
Minnesota’s final two goals were on the power play, with the first - Cameranesi’s nation-leading fifth of the season - coming with one second remaining in Bemidji’s third penalty kill of the night.
“I think we need to be better at (the penalty kill) tomorrow,” said Anderson. “They are so talented up front when they get in the zone and get going. You lose people. They’re just very skilled.”
Leveille did the rest. The senior goaltender did not give Bemidji many rebound opportunities. For Minnesota, all went according to plan.
“The goal is to against these guys is to keep the zero and to get something other than a zero on our board as quickly as possible,” said Gophers head coach Brad Frost.
Bemidji State and Minnesota conclude the two-game WCHA series at 4 p.m. Saturday afternoon.
Minnesota 4, Bemidji State 0
BSU 0 0 0 - 0
MIN 1 3 0 - 4
First Period - 1, MIN, Cara Piazza (Kate Schipper), 6:36. Penalties - BSU, Stephanie Anderson (high sticking) 17:13; MIN, Milica McMillen (checking) 19:38
Second Period - 2, MIN, Kelly Pannek (Schipper, Piazza) 11:50; 3, MIN, Dani CameranesI (Sydney Baldwin, Megan Wolfe), 16:41, PP; 4, MIN, Kate Schipper (Cameranesi, Sarah Potomak), 19:14, PP. Penalties - BSU, Team (Too many players on the ice), 1:16; MIN, Kelly Pannek (interference), 3:25; BSU, Lauren Miller (holding), 14:41; BSU, Alexis Joyce (slashing), 17:38.
Third Period - No Scoring. Penalties - MIN, Megan Wolfe (holding) 17:19
