Bethel University 3, UW-Stout 2 (OT)
MENOMONIE (October 29, 2021) - In the season opener for both teams, UW-Stout and Bethel University went into overtime and it was the Royals who came out on top as Bethel scored with 31 seconds remaining in the sudden death overtime.
Only 5:16 into the season, UW-Stout (0-1-0) saw their first action on the power play as Bethel University (1-0-0) committed a penalty. A couple scoring chances and shots, but Stout came out empty on the power play and we were skating even strength.
With 3:14 left in the first period,
Logan Nelson swung his stick, hit it out of mid air, and got it past Bethel's goalie to score the first goal of the season.
Raphael Gosselin and
Cole Beckstead had assists on the goal to give the Blue Devils a 1-0 lead.
With only 47 seconds left in the period, Stout saw another power play opportunity.
In the second period, the Blue Devils saw themselves up one man and had 1:14 to answer on the power play. But the Royals killed off the remaining time.
2:43 into the period, Bethel saw their first power play opportunity. During the power play, Stout committed another penalty and saw themselves down two men with 46 seconds left on their first penalty. During the 5 on 3, Royal's Luke Posner shot a one timer and got it past
Brennan Kitchen to make the score tied at one. Stout still had to kill off a penalty as they skated 5 on 4 and succeeded.
With 3:12 left in the second period, Bethel's Luke Posner scored his second goal of the game to give the Royals a 2-1 lead.
But Stout didn't back down in the period as
Landon Lushanko scored with 1:52 left to get the game tied going into the 2nd intermission.
Matt Dahlseide and
Noe Perez assisted on the tying goal.
In the third period, Stout went on the power play twice in the first 12 minutes of the period, but Bethel killed off both penalties. With 4:29 left in the period, Stout went on another power play. During the power play, Stout committed a penalty and both teams skated 4 on 4. During the 4 on 4, the Royals penalty expired and Bethel saw themselves on a power play. But the Blue Devils killed off the penalty and both team skated full strength with 1:56 left in the game.
With just under two minutes left in the game, both teams had scoring chances to get the go-ahead goal, but both came up short and the first game of the season saw overtime.
With new rules this year, both teams skate 3 on 3 during a five minute overtime sudden death period. There were chances by both teams, but with only 31 seconds remaining, Bethel went on a breakaway. Luke Posner stole the puck at mid-ice, got separation, shot the puck and hit the back of the net to end the game, finishing the night with a hat trick.
Bethel's Ridge Gerads got the win and finished the game with 32 saves. Stout's Kitchen finished the game with 29 saves.
Up next for the Blue Devils is a non-conference matchup between the Falcons of Concordia-Wisconsin tomorrow, Saturday, Oct. 30 with puck drop set at 7pm.
