BEMIDJI, Minn. - The Bemidji State University women’s hockey team needed two comebacks in a 3-3 tie with Minnesota State-Mankato today at the John Glas Fieldhouse. After more than six games without a power-play goal, the Beavers used one last night and two again today to come from behind in the tie with the Mavericks.

The Beavers found themselves trailing early. After one period of play, the Beavers were down 2-0. But BSU would use the second period to mount its first comeback.

Lill Raynard led all scorers with two points in the game as she added assists on both of BSU’s game-tying goals. She also made a pass that will be noted in the BSU record books as a milestone for the BSU women’s hockey program. At the 10:12 mark of the second period, Raynard fed Amber Fryklund with a pass as she scored a goal to cut the two-goal deficit in half, 2-1. The goal was also the 100th point scored by Fryklund in her career at Bemidji State.

“Amber had two strong games this weekend, and for her to get that 100th point is big. She may not admit it but I think it is a relief to have it out of the way, ” commented BSU head coach Bruce Olson. Fryklund is the first woman in BSU history to break the 100-point plateau.

Later in the same period senior assistant captain Betsy Hegland took the pass from Alicia Kinsman and beat Maverick goaltender Shari Vogt to tie the game, 2-2.

Coming into the third period, with the score knotted at 2-2, the Mavericks would pull back into the lead less than five minutes into the period. At the 5:24 mark, Jen Jonsson scored her first goal of the season on a pass from Amy Egli. But the Beavers would not be put away that easily. At the 15:55 mark of the period, MSU-Mankato’s Egli was sent to the penalty box after tripping a BSU attacker. With one second left in the power-play, the Beaver’s Mandy Bambrough made the Mavericks pay for the mistake as she powered a slap shot past Vogt to tie the game and send the game into overtime for the second straight night.

The Beavers dominated the overtime period out shooting the Mavericks 6-0, but were not able to put one past the MSU-Mankato goaltender and had to settle for a 3-3 tie. Vogt had 45 saves on the night including all six in the overtime period to keep the Mavericks in the game as the Beavers out-shot the Mavericks 45-22 in the game.

After the game, BSU head coach Bruce Olson commented, “I think we played much better today than we did on Friday night. To walk away with a tie is OK, but what we were really looking for was some improvement from one game to the next and I think we saw that today. We scored on the power-play, Amber got her 100th point, and Lill Raynard played back-to-back solid games for us.”

Bemidji State is now 5-8-6 overall and 3-6-5 in the WCHA and will be back in action next weekend (Jan. 18) when the University of North Dakota (7-10-2) comes to Bemidji for a non-conference game. The puck is set to drop at 7:05 p.m. at the John Glas Fieldhouse.

Scoring Goal Assist
1st 1:05 MSUM Katie Hainrich (4) Melanie Salatino (5)
1st 17:08 MSUM Amanda Osborn (9) Kearstin Solberg (4)
2nd 10:12 BSU Amber Fryklund (6) Lill Raynard (6)
2nd 18:06 BSU Betsy Hegland (2) Alicia Kinsman (4)
3rd 5:29 MSUM Jen Jonsson (1) Amy Egli (5)
3rd 17:54 BSU Mandy Bambrough (1) Lill Raynard (7)

Saves
MSUM Shari Vogt (65:00) - 45 BSU Jill Luebke (65:00) - 22

-bsu-