Bemidji State University erupted for three goals in a span of 3:35 early in the third period to bust open a tied game and went on to down the University of Minnesota Duluth 5-2 Friday night in Bemidji, Minn.

It was the season opener for the host Beavers and the 2017-18 road debut for the No. 5 Bulldogs, who fell to 1-2-0 on the year.

UMD held a dominating 21-9 lead in shots through two periods, yet the two former Western Collegiate Hockey Association rivals went into the second intermission deadlocked at 1-1. The Bulldogs drew first blood at 7:27 of the opening period when senior left winger Blake Young stuffed a backhand under the pads of Beaver All-American goaltender Mike Bitzer. That goal, Young's third of his career, came one second after UMD's first power play opportunity of the night had expired. Bemidji State, the reigning WCHA regular season champions, drew even midiway through the second period after Gerry Fitzgerald scored on a blast from the left point just six seconds into a Beaver power play.

Adam Brady struck with the man advantage at the 3:55 mark of the third period and Justin Baudry (5:51) and Brendan Harris (7:30) followed up with even-strength goals to put the Beavers up 5-2. With UMD sophomore goaltender Hunter Shepard pulled for an extra attacker, senior left winger and team captain Karson Kuhlman banged in his first goal of the season to cut the deficit to two with one minute to play, but Leo Fitzgerald iced the Beaver victory with an empty netter 51 seconds later.

Sophomore goaltender Hunter Shepard, making just his third career start (and second in as many weeks) finished with 12 saves for while Bitzer , who came into the night owning a 1.18 goals against average and a .959 saves percentage in five career appearances against UMD, finished with 27 stops and held UMD scoreless on all three of its power play chances. Bemidji State went 2-for-5 on the power play.

"For 40 minutes, I thought we played a pretty good road game," said UMD head coach Scott Sandelin. "We lost some steam after that second Bemidji goal --i t was eerily like last Saturday night against Michigan Tech (when the Huskies scored three straight goals in less than five minutes to erase a 2-0 second-period UMD lead in the Ice Breaker Tournament title game). But I did see some good things from our team tonight."
 
The Bulldogs and Beavers will close out the home-and-home series Saturday night at AMSOIL Arena.