Northern Michigan University hockey skaters congratulate their goalie, Beni Halasz, left, for a victory during a game ealrier this season at the Berry Events Center in Marquette. (Photo courtesy NMU)

BEMIDJI, Minn. — Bemidji State unleashed a scoring blitz on Northern Michigan University Friday night, but the Wildcats answered with scoring coming from an unexpected source as the teams split their CCHA college hockey series in Minnesota over the weekend.

The Beavers scored three goals in less than a minute of the first period of a 4-0 victory on Friday night before the Wildcats’ Aiden Gallacher registered his first two NMU goals as Northern prevailed 5-2 on Saturday.

Northern split a two-game set for the fifth time in their last six series, the exception being a pair of losses in their home series against Minnesota State-Mankato to open 2023 two weeks earlier.

NMU held onto its .500 records at 12-12 overall and 8-8 in the league. The Wildcats fell into a tie for sixth place in the CCHA with St. Thomas, which has played two more games than Northern.

NMU trails fifth-place Ferris State by four points and fourth-place Bemidji (10-9-5, 8-5-3) by seven points as those three teams have played the same number of games.

The Wildcats are back in action this weekend, as they will every weekend for the remainder of the regular season, with a home-and-home series with Upper Peninsula rival Michigan Tech.

Friday’s 7:07 p.m. opening faceoff takes place in Houghton before the return match at 6:07 p.m. Saturday will be at the Berry Events Center in Marquette. Both games are expected to be televised on WLUC-TV6 and/or Fox-U.P.

Here’s a roundup of the games at Bemidji:

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Bemidji State 4, Northern Michigan University 0

On Friday night, the Beavers turned this contest into a rout before it was eight minutes old by scoring three goals in 54 seconds, their fastest sequence of that many goals since 2006.

It also prompted a goaltending change for the Wildcats after Beni Halasz gave up the spree in favor of Charlie Glockner, who gave up just one more goal over the last 52 minutes-plus while making 24 saves.

Though NMU had some good offensive pressure on the first two shifts of the game from the top line of Andre Ghantous, David Keefer and Joey Larson, it all came tumbling down starting with 6:15 elapsed.

That’s when Kaden Pickering got Bemidji’s first goal, followed by one by Eric Martin 28 seconds later and another by Mitchell Martan 26 seconds after that.

Knocking the wind out of the Wildcats’ sails, Northern finished the night tying for its fewest shots on goal all season — 18 — while the Beavers finished with 35. It was also the first time NMU was shut out in 2022-23.

The night’s only other goal — all of them were even strength — was scored by Bemidji’s Lleyton Roed with a little less than three minutes remaining in the second period.

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Northern Michigan University 5, Bemidji State 2

On Saturday night, the Wildcats bounced back in a big way, establishing their own 4-0 lead before the home team could get on the scoreboard.

Halasz also bounced back, stopping 35 of 37 shots and keeping the home team off the board for more than 50 minutes. He helped negate Bemidji’s 37-22 shots-on-goal advantage.

Northern’s lead was built by four players each scoring a goal, including the first of his Wildcats career by Gallacher. He is a junior this year after transferring from Michigan State, where he only scored a single goal in his two seasons there.

Like Gallacher, teammates AJ Vanderbeck and Artem Shlaine also had two-point nights, these two each having a goal and an assist.

But it was NMU’s Connor Eddy who knocked home the only goal of the first period, scoring 11:32 in after taking a rebound off the end wall and jamming the puck home following the initial shot by Josh Zinger, according to an account from NMU Sports Information. Alex Frye was also credited with an assist.

Bemidji’s Jere Vaisanen looked to give the Wildcats more momentum when he drew a five-minute major penalty to end the first period, but on the subsequent power play to start the second, NMU had just one shot on goal.

Vaisanen wasn’t to be deterred, however, drawing a minor just 12 seconds after coming out of the box for the major. Again, NMU couldn’t score, though Michael Van Unen hit the post and several more good chances were denied by BSU goalie Mattias Sholl, according to NMU SI.

Not until the final four minutes of the second did Northern add to its lead, scoring twice in 22 seconds. The first was by Shlaine, who took a pass from Joey Larson on an odd-man rush and fired the puck over Sholl’s blocker hand, according to NMU SI. Kristof Papp got the second assist.

The second goal, at 16:25, was Gallacher’s first as Ghantous slid the puck across to a wide-open Gallacher as Vanderbeck also got an assist.

Concentrating on protecting their 3-0 lead, Northern did that on offense early in the third when Vanderbeck scored his 12th goal of the season at 5:56. Teammate David Keefer blocked a shot from the point and dove to bat the puck to Vanderbeck, who got loose on a breakaway and shot it past Sholl’s ear, according to NMU SI.

The Beavers broke through about 5 1/2 minutes later with 8:46 remaining when Elias Rosen was all alone in the slot and buried the puck to make it 4-1.

That lead suddenly looked less secure when Ghantous was whistled for a penalty with just over two minutes to go and Bemidji pulled their goalie for a two-man advantage.

But Gallacher thwarted that strategy when, just five seconds into the kill, he fired the puck a hundred feet and into the empty net.

Even worse for BSU, they scored 49 seconds later still on the power play with a goal by Ross Armour for the final margin.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.