Game recap courtesy Bemidji State athletics department

GRAND FORKS, N.D. (Ralph Engelstad Arena) -- They’ve done it again.

This afternoon the 2009-10 edition of the No. 6 Bemidji State University men’s ice hockey team added yet another chapter to one of the most tradition-rich legacies in all of collegiate sport. In a hard fought game in which control of every puck was a battle, the Beavers skated out of the Ralph Engelstad Arena with a 3-2 victory over No. 1 Miami University in the first game of the Subway Holiday Classic. The win versus the nation’s top-ranked RedHawks marked the first time BSU has knocked off NCAA Division I’s top team.

With the score knotted at 2-2 after 56:41, senior captain Chris McKelvie (F, New Brighton, Minn.) followed Matt Read (Jr., F. Ilderton, Ontario) into the zone as a trailer, collected a rebound from the leg of Miami goaltender Cody Reichard and fired it into the back to account for the difference maker as he was being hauled to the ice by a RedHawk defender. The Beavers would protect the lead for the remaining 3:19 to post their 11th victory of the season.

“There aren’t many guys in college hockey faster than Chris McKelvie,” BSU head coach Tom Serratore commented after the game. “Chris sensed it, he saw it and he went. When you beat people to pucks, good things happen.”

“All week we’ve been talking that this is the No. 1 team in the nation and we had to have our best game to show the nation that we are for real,” said Read. “It took 60 minutes but we had some play back to deal with tonight. I thought we played a good game and ended up on top.”

The first period panned out just as you would imagine of a game between the nation’s top two defenses. A grand total of nine shots made it to the goaltenders. Despite recording just two shots on goal during the period and trailing 7-2, the Beavers held a 1-0 lead over the RedHawks after 20 minutes.

The Beavers captured their first lead at the 8:37 mark when Darcy Findlay (So., F, Bristol, Quebec) stuck with a play and muscled a shot on goal despite being partially blocked. The puck bounced up and over the right shoulder of Reichard. Findlay’s second goal of the season was assisted by freshman Aaron McLeod (F, Ottawa, Ontario).

The RedHawks took a late penalty in the period giving the Beavers their second power-play opportunity of the game, but BSU would come up empty-handed and the teams would skate to the locker rooms for the first intermission with Bemidji State clinging to a 1-0 lead.

Bemidji State went up 2-0 6:02 into the second. Tyler Lehrke (Sr., F, Park Rapids, Minn.) corralled a rebound off McKelvie’s shot and buried his third goal of the season. The tally put the RedHawks down two goals for the third time this season and the first time since they were defeated by Michigan State University Oct. 24, 3-2 in overtime.

The Beavers spent the much of the remainder of the period pinned deep within their defensive zone. The RedHawks piled up a 10-6 advantage on the shot board, but came up empty as Dan Bakala (So., G, Calgary, Alberta) slammed the door on the Miami barrage to preserve the two-goal lead heading into the final 20 minutes of play.

The Beavers came into the series riding a perfect 8-0-0 streak when leading after two periods of play in 2009-10 and would improve to 9-0-0 despite allowing MU to stir up some excitement during the final 10 minutes of play.

The RedHawks battled back to score the game’s first power-play marker taking advantage of a Dan MacIntyre (Jr., D, Fort Frances, Ontario) interference call at the 14:13 mark. MU capitalized on the man advantage one minute, 11 seconds later (15:24) getting a Camper goal from the point.

Just under three minutes later, MU got a second goal from Camper to knot the game at 2-2 and erase their largest deficit of the season.

But with 3:19 to play, McKelvie was in the right place at the right time, netting his fifth goal of the season on the rebound. Read was credited with an assist on the play after skating the puck into the zone and firing a backhand on net.

Miami won the special teams battle going 1-for-3 on the man advantage, while BSU failed so score on any of its four power-play opportunities.

Bakala finished the night with 20 saves, including 10 in the second period alone to post his eighth victory of the season.

Reichard turned away 12 BSU shots in 58:43 between the pipes for the RedHawks, but was tagged with the loss, his first of the season (8-1-2), after allowing all three BSU goals.

The BSU-MU series is now tied at 1-1-0. The rivalry got is start just seven short months ago when the teams met in Washington, D.C in the semifinal round of the Frozen Four.

The Beavers (11-1-1) continue nonconference action tomorrow when they wrap up play in the Subway Holiday Classic with a 4:07 p.m. contest versus the Ohio State University. The game is set for the Ralph Engelstad Arena.