Griffin Dewar delivers a stunner in OT to snap Jacks' 13-game skid against Rams

Dec. 21—BEMIDJI — Games between the Bemidji High School boys hockey team and Roseau haven't been pretty, especially in recent years.

The Rams got the better of the Lumberjacks thrice in 2022-23, including a 9-3 drubbing in the Section 8AA quarterfinals. In fact, Roseau had won the last 13 meetings between the two programs, dating back to Feb. 2, 2017. That was until Tuesday night at the Bemidji Community Arena.

Tied 2-2 after 51 minutes, the two teams played an overtime session to see if either would claim the win. After seven minutes of free hockey, sophomore Griffin Dewar scored the biggest goal of his young high school career.

"I was just trying to drive to the net," Dewar said. "I saw one of our guys throw it to the net, and I just wanted to get my stick down and bang it in. I was like, 'I can't believe I scored.' You just feel that joy after it happens when your teammates rush you in the corner."

Joey Fankhanel dropped the puck to Austin Coe, trailing behind him on a zone entry, who fed Dewar on the doorstep. Dewar's tip-in shot was enough to beat Brayton Levesque with a minute left in overtime, capping an upset win over the defending Section 8AA runner-up.

"We were just committed to winning this one," head coach Ben Kinne said. "There really weren't a whole lot of chances. They had a few of them, especially towards the end, and our goalie came up huge. Tonight was just an all-around team effort."

Bemidji and Roseau were scoreless after two periods. While scoring chances were hard to come by in a traditional Section 8AA clash, Roseau leaned on its potent scorers — Noah Urness, Gavin Jensen and Jake Halvorson — to get high-danger shots on goal off the rush. Bemidji, on the other hand, got its opportunities in grittier ways.

The Jacks were keen on blocking shots to catch the Rams in transition. They won races to loose pucks, kept their sticks in passing lanes and chopped down Roseau's top line to limit its time and space with the puck.

"Those are the things we need to do to have success," Kinne said. "In all honesty, we don't have that level of skill right now to go out there and go up and down the ice with everybody. We have to win those puck battles. We have to win the blue lines and get pucks to the net front. Those are the things that help us be successful."

BHS broke the ice on a 5-on-3 advantage early in the third period. Austin Coe finished off a rebound shot from Taevon Welle.

The Lumberjacks could only keep the Rams' trio at bay for so long. Jensen tied the game with a coast-to-coast individual effort a minute and a half after Coe scored.

Connor Woidtke had played every minute in goal for Roseau until the third period. He left the game after Coe's goal with an injury. Levesque stepped in to make a handful of saves before Noah Mannausau put the Lumberjacks in front 2-1 on a shot through a screen.

Roseau wasted little time in erasing the lead again. This time, it was Urness, a St. Cloud State commit, who buried a second-chance shot in the slot past the glove of Jacks goaltender Tate Metcalf.

"I just kept telling them to relax on the bench," Kinne said. "The game is not over. Once they made it 2-2, you just had to tell them to take a deep breath. We're going to be OK. Credit to the kids for being resilient."

Bemidji's resilience was tested again in the final minutes when Welle took a tripping penalty with 1:14 left in regulation. But the Lumberjacks killed the penalty to close the third period before finishing off the man-down effort to start overtime.

"You take a penalty with that much time left, you could go down in the dumps there," Kinne continued. "The kill stood strong, and the goalie stood strong. We needed all of them."

Metcalf put forth the best game of his junior season, making 38 saves in the win. After an up-and-down start for BHS (3-5), a signature win over Roseau (5-3) is something to build off after Christmas.

"This is the goalie that I'm going to expect all the time now," Kinne said. "Can he repeat that effort over and over? That's going to be the challenge to him, and the same goes for the group. We need to keep playing with this effort. We need to make this the norm."

Bemidji 3, Roseau 2 (OT)

ROS 0 0 2 0 — 2

BHS 0 0 2 1 — 3

First period — No scoring.

Second period — No scoring.

Third period — BHS GOAL: Coe (Welle, Fankhanel) PP, 6:01; ROS GOAL: Jensen (unassisted) 8:33; BHS GOAL: Mannausau (O'Leary, Knott) 11:29; ROS GOAL: Urness (unassisted) 12:38.

Overtime — BHS GOAL: Dewar (Coe, Fankhanel) 7:00.

Saves — Metcalf (BHS) 38; Woidtke/Levesque (ROS) 38.