The Minot State men’s hockey team turned Liberty University into the proverbial pumpkin not exactly at the stroke of midnight, but not too long after.

The second-ranked Beavers were guests for the Flames’ “Midnight Madness” game, which dropped the puck at midnight Eastern Time in Lynchburg, Va., Friday night into Saturday morning, but they weren’t caught sleepwalking. Instead, Minot State scored three first-period goals en route to a 5-0 victory over the eighth-ranked Flames.

Joey Moffatt and Jaxon Grosdidier each recorded a goal and an assist and Slade Stanick had a pair of assists to all finish with two-point nights. Moffatt had the secondary assist on the opening goal of the game off the stick of Colby Joseph at 6:13 of the first period on the power play. Moffatt provided the second goal minutes later and Grosdidier closed out the opening period with his marker.

Matt Egan added to the lead in the second period and Brett Tataryn capped off the scoring in the third.

Will Dyke earned his first shutout of the season in net for the Beavers (14-1-1), stopping all 24 shots he faced. Liberty’s Konrad Kausch finished with 28 saves.

The two teams were back on the ice hours later, this time at a more conventional hour, but the end result was more of the same. The Flames avoided a second consecutive shutout, but the Beavers scored the first four goals in a 4-1 victory on Saturday, Dec. 6, for their seventh straight victory.

Joseph and Tataryn each recorded their second goal of the weekend, while Sheldin Howard and Logan Cyca potted their first. Howard scored 2:04 into the game and Cyca gave the Beavers a 2-0 advantage heading into the first intermission.

Joseph and Tataryn added goals in the second period.

The Flames (15-6-0) got on the board 3:02 into the third period when Ryan Finch finally solved Dyke, but that was the only shot the home team could get past the Minot State netminder all weekend. Dyke added to his weekend save total with 25 more on Saturday to finish with 49.

The Beavers finish off a nine-game road trip against the University of Jamestown on Wednesday, Dec. 10, at 7 p.m. before returning home against Lake Region State on Saturday, Dec. 13, for their final contest of the calendar year.