By Wayne Nelson
Herald Staff Writer
A tie at this time of the season is not a horrible thing. It’s not all that great, either, for a team that has its sights set on making the NCAA tournament.
But winning the ensuing shootout does have some advantages, like UND discovered after skating to a 3-3 tie against Bemidji State on Friday night at Ralph Engelstad Arena.
UND lost a two-goal third period lead and then couldn’t hold on to a one-score advantage in the final minute as Bemidji State rallied for the WCHA tie.
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Becca Kohler’s sudden-death shootout goal gave UND the extra point in the league standings served as some consolation as the teams wrap up their series tonight.
“Hopefully, that will give a little energy for tomorrow,” said UND coach Brian Idalski.
But UND was less than a minute from even worrying about overtime or a shootout as North Dakota couldn’t shut down a late Bemidji rally.
“We definitely didn’t want to go to a shootout,” said Kohler. “But we learned a lot in general. We have to finish hard.”
That was about the only negative for UND, which controlled play for two-and-a-half periods.
Bemidji scored three goals in the final eight minutes and had the momentum in the closing minutes as UND had trouble staying out of the penalty box. North Dakota was called for three third-period penalties and one in the overtime.
“I don’t think a tie is necessarily a bad thing,” said Idalski. “But when you have a two-goal lead, you’re obviously a little disappointed; especially since we’ve been pretty solid in that period all season.
“We made some really bad mistakes and that cost us some goals.”
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UND outshot Bemidji 32-19 and took the 2-0 lead into the third period on goals by Amy Menke and Layla Marvin - both coming in the first period.
But Bemidji tied the game at 2-2 on goals by Whitney Wivoda and Rachael Kelly, who scored on the power play at 14:52 of the third.
Kelly’s wrister from the slot was Bemidji’s second goal in a three-minute span and had UND on its heels.
Josefine Jakobsen, however, put UND up 3-2 as she scored at 18:04. But Bemidji pulled its goalie and scored the game-tying goal when Kaitlyn Tougas knocked in a rebound to the glove side of UND freshman goalie Lexi Shaw at 19:08.
It also was a short-handed goal for Bemidji.
During the shootout, Kohler’s slapshot managed to trickle through the pads of Bemidji goalie Brittni Mowat, who finished with 29 saves.
“My coach, Peter (Elander), told me to shoot it; he said everyone was using the deke move earlier,” said Kohler. “So I took a slap shot and it went in.”
The tie, said Kohler, was disappointing.
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“You want to win,” she said.
