The Falcons hockey team defeated the Bemidji State Beavers in the semifinal round of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs, winning on Friday night 4-3 in overtime before taking the series on Saturday night with a 2-1 victory.
“We’ve been in this position before and we’ve played in the semifinals before,” Falcons head coach Chris Bergeron said. “In the past it’s been one game and we hadn’t been able to find a way and I think our older guys made sure we found a way.”
Friday’s game started with senior forward Kevin Dufour putting the Falcons on the board at 9:08 in the first period for a 1-0 lead. Bemidji State came back to tie just over five minutes later and took the lead with a power play tally at 4:45 of the second period. Bemidji State would hold that advantage through the remainder of the period. In the third, however, the Falcons scored 32 seconds in with senior forward Matt Pohlkamp to tie the game 2-2. Bemidji State responded with a goal just over a minute later to retake the lead, but the Falcons tied the game up again with Dufour scoring his second goal of the game at 13:30. Neither team was able to break the tie through the remainder of regulation, sending the game into a sudden death overtime. The teams played though nearly all of the first overtime period before Dufour completed the hat trick at the 17:23 mark and gave the Falcons the 4-3 overtime win.
“I thought our overtime was pretty good,” Bergeron said. “We had some zone time, we pushed a little bit and created some chances, and what happened on the winning goal was just kind of a result of that.”
On Saturday, Bemidji State scored the first goal of the game at 3:16 in the first and held that lead through the rest of the period. In the second period, the Falcons responded with Dufour netting his fourth goal of the series at 1:35, tying the game at one apiece. The game turned into a low scoring one, however, as both teams went scoreless through the rest of the period. Pohlkamp broke the deadlock at 3:49 in the third period. Despite numerous chances from Bemidji State late in the game, the Falcons were able to hold on for the 2-1 win and the semifinal round championship.
“Outside of the first ten minutes, I thought we played the game we wanted to play,” Bergeron said. “I thought we spent way more time in their zone than we did last night. I thought we were a hard team to defend tonight. I thought we were strong in the offensive zone. I just thought we were more like ourselves.”
The team will next play in the WCHA Championship game on the road Saturday night against the Michigan Tech Huskies.
“I’m proud of our guys,” Bergeron said. “We earned home ice last weekend and had to come on the road last weekend, I think our guys have done a nice job.”
