Gudmandson and Badgers Finish Strong

Within the first three minutes of the Friday night match-up with the Bemidji State Beavers the Badgers were already down 2-0. Then the Badgers kicked it into another gear. Defeating the Beavers 3-2 on Friday night, and on Saturday senior goaltender Scott Gudmandson would finish strong.

Friday night Gudmandson was able to stop 25 Beaver shots, and hold Bemidji State scoreless for the other 57 minutes of the game. Against that same group of Beavers on Saturday Gudmandson would keep that scoreless streak going. Stopping every shot the Beavers threw at him, and earning his second shutout of the season.

Regardless of the goaltending the Badgers would need to find a way to score themselves in order to take home a victory. That scoring came from a variety of sources on Saturday night.

The first goal came late in the first period when Justin Schultz hit Michael Mearsch on a give and go for the goal. Giving the Badgers their first lead of the game and would end up being the only lead they would need.

For insurance purposes the Badgers called on Podge Turnbull rather than State Farm. Despite the thrilling save by Bemidji goaltender Dan Bakala the Beavers were unable to stop the Badger rush, and Bakala was unable to stop Turnbull.

The goal came off of a shot by freshman Frankie Simmonelli that Turnbull got a piece of. Deflecting the puck into the net, and in many ways putting the game out of reach.

With two minutes remaining in the contest Bemidji State pulled Bakala to gain the extra skater, but that would be no help. Gudmandson would stand the barrage of shots at the end, and hold on for his sixth career shut-out. Not to mention giving the Badgers a 2-0 win, and a sweep over the WCHA rookies from Bemidji.