The University of Minnesota Duluth and Bemidji State University were fit to be tied Friday night as the two intrastate rivals opened up a home-and-home series with a 1-1 deadlock at AMSOIL Arena.

Bemidji State's Phillip Marinaccio scored on the power play with 4:30 to go in the first period and Parker Mackay did the honors for the top-ranked Bulldogs at 6:23 of the third when his pass intended for linemate Riley Tufte from the far side of the right faceoff circle deflected in off the skate of a Beaver defender. That gave the sophomore right winger four goals on the season, equaling his entire 2015-16 total. Senior left winger Alex Iafallo put a game-high seven shots on goal for UMD (11-3-3), which has lost just once in the seven games it has trailed at the second intermission this season (3-1-3).

Michael Bitzer finished with 35 saves, including a pair in the five-minute overtime, while rookie Hunter Miska (10-2-1) made 20 stops. Miska, who was credited with his second career assist, is now 5-1-1 at home with a 1.42 goals against average and a .942 saves percentage.

"They gave us exactly what I thought they would," said UMD head coach Scott Sandelin, whose club went 0-for-5 on the power play.  "I didn't think our first half of the game tonight was very good at all. We spotted them that power play goal, but our guys kept battling but we found a way to tie it."

With the tie, the No. 15 Beavers (13-5-3) hiked their unbeaten streak over the top-ranked Bulldogs to seven games, an 0-5-2 run that dates back to the Dec. 8, 2012. The two teams will meet again on Saturday at 7:07 at the Sanford Center in Bemidji, Minn.