Box Score March 4, 2006
Women’s Ice Hockey

DULUTH , Minn. - On Saturday evening Bemidji State’s (11-23-2) season would come to an end as it would fall 3-0 to Minnesota Duluth (22-7-3) in the first round of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association conference tournament. Riitta Schaublin only had to make 24 saves to record the 3-0 shut-out.

Just :15 seconds into the first period of Saturday nights game Bemidji State’s Nikki Eckebrecht (Hamilton, Ontario) would take a body-checking penalty to give the Bulldogs an early power-play opportunity. Bemidji State’s Haley Balcom (Elk River, Minn.) would then take a hooking penalty :53 seconds after the Eckebrecht penalty to give the Bulldogs a 5-on-3 power-play opportunity. With some good goaltending by Jill Luebke (Neenah, Wis.) the Beavers were able to keep the Bulldogs off the board and kill both penalties.

The Bulldogs would continue to pepper Luebke and would get on the board at 4:29 of the first period. Jessica Koizumi would beat Luebke through the five-hole to record her third goal of the series to put the Bulldogs up 1-0 early in the contest. Minnesota Duluth would add to its lead late in the period as Sara O’Toole would take a slap-shot from the left circle that would beat Luebke to put the Bulldogs up 2-0 with less than one-minute to play in the period. Bemidji State would get three power-play opportunities in the period but were unable to take advantage of the power-play opportunities.

Minnesota Duluth would dominate much of the period and out-shot Bemidji State 16-to-8 in the period. Jill Luebke would end the period with fourteen saves while Riitta Schaublin would stop all eight shots she would face in the period for the Bulldogs.

In the second period of play at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center (DECC) neither team would be able to score despite many opportunities. At 16:22 of the period Allison Johanson (Flagstaff, Ariz.) would take a penalty to give the Bulldogs a power-play opportunity. Just four seconds later Bemidji State’s Tara Hiscock (Bemidji, Minn.) would go to the penalty box for high sticking. This would give the Bulldogs its second five on three power-play of the game. Once again Bemidji State’s penalty killing unit would be solid and would be able to kill off both penalties. Jill Luebke had to make numerous diving saves to keep the puck out of the net for the Beavers. At the end of two periods of play the Bulldogs would still have a 2-0 lead over the Beavers.

Minnesota Duluth would out-shoot the Beavers once again in the second period 15-to-7 for a game total of 31-to-15. Luebke recorded 15 saves in the period for a game total of 29 saves, while Schaublin remained perfect picking up seven saves in the second period for a game total of 15 saves.

Minnesota Duluth would go on the man advantage once again at 1:34 of the third period when Bemidji State’s Haley Balcom would take a tripping penalty. Once again Bemidji State would be able to kill the penalty while holding the Bulldogs to one shot on the man-advantage. Bemidji State would get its own shot at a 5-on-3 power-play opportunity at 10:07 of the third period but the Bulldogs would be able to kill it off. At 11:46 of the period Bemidji State would go back on a 5-on-3 power-play for :21 seconds but would be unable to get the puck past Minnesota Duluth goaltender Riitta Schaublin.

Minnesota Duluth would put an exclamation mark on the game and the series when Larissa Luther would put the Bulldogs up 3-0 with just under five minutes left in the contest. When the horn sounded Minnesota Duluth would attain a 3-0 shut-out victory to advance to the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) championship round at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis, Minn.
For the game Minnesota Duluth out-shot Bemidji State 45-to-24.

The Beavers ended the evening 0-for-7 on the power-play while Minnesota Duluth was also 0-for-7. Bemidji State has killed off 53 of its last 56 penalties.

Senior netminder Jill Luebke recorded 42 saves in her final game as a Beaver. Luebke ends the season with a 7-12-1 record. Riitta Schaublin recoreded 24 saves in the shut-out.

--bsu--