Alex Eisen/MDN Minot State senior defenseman Kyle Lipinski celebrates after scoring a game-tying goal in the third period of an ACHA Division I National Tournament quarterfinal game against Adrian College in Frisco, Texas.

FRISCO, Texas — An unsung hero and a backup goalie. Unconventional, but that’s how the Minot State men’s club hockey team kept its season alive Sunday afternoon in Frisco, Texas.

The No. 6-seeded Beavers rallied from a goal down in the third period to upset the defending national champions, the No. 3-seeded Adrian College (Mich.) Bulldogs, in the quarterfinals of the ACHA Division I National Tournament.

MSU senior defenseman Kyle Lipinski buried two third-period goals and Joshua Bykowski stepped in for injured starting netminder Breydan Effertz in a must-win, come from behind 3-2 victory.

“I thought we owned a majority of the play and dictated the flow, we just couldn’t get rewarded,” MSU head coach Wade Regier said. “But, I thought for our guys, if we keep believing in ourselves and keep pushing forward, then we were going to get rewarded for some of these chances. Sure enough, we get one and another. That’s how we have been this season. We score in bunches and, more importantly than anything else, the boys just believed that we had the team to get it done.”

The Beavers got going from the get-go and went right at the Bulldogs. Adrian College goaltender Michael Barrett, however, held firm and turned away a handful of quality scoring chances to keep the contest scoreless.

The deadlock was finally lifted when Chris Donaldson snapped a loose puck over the glove shoulder of Effertz with six minutes left in the opening period. Just like that, seemingly out of nothing, Adrian College had grabbed a 1-0 lead going into the first intermission.

“We were all over them,” Lipinski said. “There was no way we weren’t going to slot one in eventually.”

Trailing for the first time in the national tournament, MSU kept the pressure on and outshot Adrian 18-5 in the second period. Nonetheless, Adrian College hung on to its slim one-goal advantage.

While MSU couldn’t break the seal of the goal at one end, disaster struck at the other with five minutes gone in the second period. On what appeared to be a routine save, Effertz dropped face first to the ice in agonizing pain.

His outing was over with what was later confirmed to be a pulled groin.

“It’s not good,” Regier said. “I think his status might be done for the tournament.”

Off the bench came backup goaltender Bykowski, who isn’t a stranger to the spotlight. Bykowski was the starting goaltender when MSU knocked off the University of Colorado in the national quarterfinals last season.

“When Brey (Effertz) went down, I knew something was up when he didn’t get back up,” said Bykowski, who put together a 9-2 record in the regular season with a 1.64 goals against average and 93.0 save percentage. “I know the boys had a lot of confidence in Brey and then me as well. I thought I was just going to be supporting the boys today and didn’t think I’d be going in. But, I had fun doing it.”

Regier added: “It’s a tough break for Brey. He is a good kid. But, you know what, we feel like we have the best three goalies in the county. Regardless of who goes in goal, we know we have a good chance to win.”

Despite outshooting Adrian College 29-15 through two periods, MSU was on the brink of elimination by entering the third period down 1-0.

“Sometimes it doesn’t matter,” Regier said about the shot discrepancy. “The quote of the day had we lost this game was, ‘Shots on goal and time of possession don’t really mean anything. It’s all about scoring goals.'”

Lipinski found a way to do just that.

The senior defenseman, who scored one goal in 34 regular season games this year, put on an encore performance after he had scored a timely goal in MSU’s 5-3 first round win over the University of Illinois on Saturday.

Lipinski freed himself up for a breakaway goal two minutes into the third period to even the score at 1-1.

“It was a nice goal, but it was also one heck of a pass,” Regier said. “That stretch pass from the D-man (Eric Bollefer). He had the puck on his stick and I don’t think he realized that the (penalty) kill was over. He was getting ready to ice the puck and Kyle (Lipinski) was going to come to the bench for a change. Well, (Adrian) forget about (Lipinski) and, boom, he was gone.”

A little over a minute after Lipinski got MSU on the board, Adam Wowryk pushed the Beavers into the lead. His first goal of the tournament came right off a faceoff win by Blake Fournier with the puck finding Wowryk in the slot.

A much-needed insurance goal came on the power play seven minutes later. Lipinski redirected a puck in front with Johl Swedlo and Shain Scheschuk picking up the assists.

“I’ve just been going into the games and not overthinking it,” Lipinski said. “This feels pretty good. But, it’s a team game. Everyone was playing their hardest, and we stuck to our systems. We knew (the goals) would come eventually.”

Adrian College’s Rainer Glimpel cut the deficit to 3-2 with 8:11 remaining. From that point on, MSU was blocking pucks left and right to prevent the game from going into overtime.

“At the end, (Adrian) showed its resiliency and why they are defending champs,” Regier said. “They had us on our heels a couple shifts in a row, and (Bykowski) had to make some big saves for us.”

Bykowski made 10 saves in relief, building off the 13 saves picked up by Effertz. Barrett, who opened the national tournament with five shutout periods of hockey, stopped 36 shots in the loss. For the game, MSU outshot Adrian College 39-25.

At press time it was unknown who the Beavers would face next in the national semifinals this evening at either 4 p.m. or 7:30 p.m. The semifinals are re-seeded with the highest and lowest seeded teams remaining playing each other, and the second highest and lowest seeded teams in the other semifinal.

Alex Eisen covers Minot State athletics, the Minot Minotauros and high school sports. Follow him on Twitter @AEisen13.