BLAINE, Minn. – Four unanswered goals for the Bethel University men's hockey team paced way to earning three points in the MIAC standings with a 5-2 win over Gustavus Adolphus Friday evening.
Bethel saw five different goal scorers, four tallying their first collegiate goal, including an empty netter from netminder
Ridge Gerads.
The Royals didn't take long to get on the board with
Ben Ward scoring his second of the season. A centering pass from
Luke Posner set up Ward for a point-blank look before putting in his own rebound at the 2:43 mark.
Gustavus evened it up at 1-1 just under the eight-minute mark. The Royals fended off two penalties down the stretch going into the first intermission knotted at a goal a piece.
The Gusties put in a rebound shot of their own taking a goal advantage 4:50 into the second. Skating well all night, the Royals evened it back up at two with a goal from
Ben Ward. A pass along the boards behind the net from
Colin Mehren to Poser set up Poser's centering pass to Ward for the tap in.
The Royals took a 3-2 lead into the second intermission as
Brian Smith beat the horn with 28 seconds remaining.
In the third,
Jacob Evans expanded BU's lead to a pair scoring from the left point as
Ben Doherty and
Sam Wilhite picked up assists. The icing on the cake was Gerads scoring the empty netter at the 18:52 mark. Gerads finished the night in the crease with 39 saves.
The Royals special teams were on point again killing off four Gustavus power plays making its opponents power play conversion percentage this season drop to a mere .029 (1-of-34).
The two teams close out the series tomorrow night in St. Peter at 7 p.m.
