Mike Kraft/MDN Walker Jerome and the Minot State men’s hockey team completed a home-and-home series sweep of U-Mary on Wednesday, Feb. 4, at Starion Sports Complex in Mandan. The Beavers won four of five meetings with the Marauders this season.

With just one regulation loss this season, it’s rare that the Minot State men’s hockey team has an opportunity to play the revenge card.

That lone regulation loss came on Nov. 8 to the University of Mary at the Starion Sports Complex in Mandan, the site of Wednesday’s final regular season meeting between the two rival programs.

The top-ranked Beavers got their revenge in dominating fashion, silencing the U-Mary crowd early and completing the home-and-home midweek series sweep with an 8-2 victory on Feb. 4 at Starion Sports Complex. Minot State won four of its five meetings with the Marauders this season and has won 11 of the last 12 matchups.

“A lot happier than yesterday’s result,” Minot State coach Wyatt Waselenchuk said. “We cleaned up a lot. Having a good start there, a good first period. A big, big step forward in terms of us compared to last night.”

Waselenchuk was none too happy with his team’s performance the previous night despite skating away with a 4-2 victory, calling it their “worst performance of the season.” The Beavers got the message, netting four goals in the opening period and taking all the oxygen out of the building as a result.

“Our work ethic through and through was better and our care of taking care of the puck and just simplifying,” Waselenchuk said. “We got pucks deep and our forecheck was great. We did the opposite of last night. We forced a lot of turnovers on their D and made it really tough for them to get pucks out and clogged up the middle of the ice and our D did a tremendous job of defending and holding our blue line and limited their chances.”

Matt Egan opened the onslaught just 2:34 into the contest, burying a rebound in front for his fourth goal of the season. Matthew Yakubowski ripped a shot from the blue line that deflected off a U-Mary defenseman and came right to the stick of Egan, who beat Marauder goaltender Caleb Cross to put the Beavers up early.

Joey Mofffatt found the back of the net less than three minutes later, getting a stick on a shot from Christian Kadolph and redirecting the puck past Cross for a 2-0 lead 5:17 into the first period.

“I know speaking with Joey how much he means to us and the standard he holds himself to as a senior and big-time contributor,” Waselenchuk said. “I know he wasn’t happy with his game last night and I think he was great tonight. He played with a lot more jump and was great in the D zone.”

U-Mary’s Joe Gronholz cut Minot State’s lead in half, but the Beavers (22-1-2) responded with a pair of goals before the end of the period. Yakubowski recorded his second assist of the game, finding Jeremy Dewar with a cross-ice pass in the offensive zone. Dewar skated to the top of the faceoff circle and sniped a shot far side.

Logan Cyca rounded out the first-period scoring with 5:37 left in the stanza, knocking home a rebound off an initial shot from Moffatt. Trenton Curtis extended Minot State’s advantage to 5-1 in the second period on the power play before U-Mary (22-12-1) capitalized on a 5-on-3 with Amraj Gill being the benefactor early in the third period.

Moffatt added his second tally and Minot State’s second power-play goal of the night and freshman transfer Sean Williams netted his first two goals in a Beaver sweater before the final buzzer. Williams’ second with 10 seconds left in regulation gave the Beavers their eighth goal of the game, matching their season high set back in an 8-2 win over Arizona State at the ACHA Showcase on Nov. 23.

“(Sean) has been with us now to start the second half and he’s been chomping at the bit to get his first and he’s had a ton of opportunities and the boys were really excited for him to score his first,” Waselenchuk said. “And to score a second in the same game was the icing on the cake.”

The goal output also matched the most the Beavers have scored in a game against U-Mary in their 33-game history, the first instance coming in their inaugural matchup on Nov. 30, 2018.

It was also the largest margin of victory against their rivals this year, surpassing a pair of four-goal victories.

Will Dyke earned the win in net for Minot State, finishing with 31 saves on 33 shots faced.

Cross was pulled after surrendering seven goals on 31 shots with 7:13 remaining in the third period. Zane Clausen played the rest of the way, stopping five of six shots.

Minot State travels to Jamestown on Wednesday, Feb. 11, before returning home for the final weekend series of the season when they host Calvin University (Mich.) for the first time in program history on Friday, Feb. 13, at 7:30 p.m. at Maysa Arena.