MANKATO, Minn. -- The Minnesota State women's hockey team shutout the Bemidji State Beavers 2-0 in a Western Collegiate Hockey Association game played at the Mayo Clinic Health System Event Center, Friday afternoon.
MSU snapped a six-game losing streak with the win to improve to 13-17-1 overall. While also improving to 9-17-1 in the WCHA with the victory, the Mavericks secured the fifth spot in the conference standings over the sixth-place Beavers. BSU now stands 11-17-3 with an 8-17-2 record in league action.
In her Maverick debut, senior netminder Chantal Burke, who now stands 1-0 on the season, stood tall and stopped each of the 28 shots she faced to secure her first career shutout.
Senior forward Brittyn Fleming scored the first and eventual game-winning goal when she put MSU in the score column 12:53 into Friday's contest. After Fleming picked up a loose puck, which was poked out of the MSU defensive zone by Kelsey King, she stormed up the right side of the ice before cutting across the slot where she beat Beavers' goaltender Kerrigan Dowhy with a five-hole shot along the ice to make it 1-0 MSU. The Mavericks carried the one-goal lead into the first intermission along with an 11-8 advantage in shots on goal.
In the second period, King picked up a loose puck in the slot and capitalized at the 15:36 mark with a shot that beat Dowhy to the lower-right corner for her team-high 16th goal of the season. Fleming and Kennedy Bobyck collected the assists off the initial three-on-one rush, which led to the goal that put the Mavericks up by two. After two periods, MSU was leading 2-0 with a 23-19 upperhand in shots.
The Mavericks held on in the final period to secure a 2-0 victory, which locked them firmly at fifth place in the WCHA standings.
MSU edged BSU 29-28 in shots. Both sides had one crack on the power play, but neither could convert on the lone chance and finished the game 0-1 with the man advanatage.
Saturday marks the rematch and regular season finale for both squads. Prior to the 2:01 p.m. face-off between MSU and BSU, Minnesota State's graduating class, made up of Fleming, Jessica Kondas and Taylor Wemple, will be honored for their time competing as members of the women's hockey team.
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