Stewart scores twice, leads Red Knights to fourth consecutive win
BSM out-shoots, out-guns Moorhead in road win.
MOORHEAD, Minn. -- Drew Stewart scored the eventual game-winning goal and put the finishing touches on the game when he scored into an empty-net with 50 seconds to play as 17th-ranked Benilde-St. Margaret's handed #11 Moorhead a 4-1 defeat.
The win was a complete team win as the Red Knights held a 44-28 advantage in shots on goal, scored short-handed and got a 27-save performance from Mason McElroy.
The visitors jumped out to a 1-0 lead, six minutes, 49 seconds into the game, when Gavin Reed pinched along the right-wing boards to keep the puck in the offensive zone.
Caleb Koskie picked up the loose puck along the boards, drove to the net to create a scramble in front and Michael Risteau came in from behind the play to record his eighth goal of the season.
But the game went into the first intermission tied at 1-1 after Brooks Cullen scored with 1:56 to play in the opening period.
The scored remained that way for another 13 minutes before Stewart struck for the first of his two goals.
After winning a short-handed faceoff in his own zone back to Mason Stenger, Stewart and Wes Berg headed up ice.
Stenger's pass up the boards was played by Berg, who moved the puck to Stewart, breaking into the offensive zone, on the right side. Stewart then wasted no time in going directly to the net and putting a shot over the glove of Moorhead netminder Kai Weigel.
Caleb Koskie set up the game's first goal and picked up second assist in the second period.
Mason McElroy backstopped the Red Knights' victory by stopping 27 of the 28 shots he faced.
With 3:02 to play in the middle frame, the Red Knights added to the lead when Koskie tipped a pass through the neutral zone to Risteau, who got the puck at the left point.
With Weigel facing a potential shot from Risteau, he passed the puck through the neutral zone to Ben Norris, coming in from the right side.
As Weigel moved across the net with the pass, Norris took the puck across the bottom of the slot and easily backhanded the puck into the net before the Moorhead goalie could reposition himself.
Once again, the scored didn't change until late in the period as the Spuds pulled Weigel for an extra attacker with 2:01 to play.
Eventually, the puck came out to the right point, along the boards, where Ryan Baird tipped pass out of the zone. Stewart then raced to catch up the puck and deposited into the Moorhead goal to seal the victory.
The victory, BSM fourth in a row, was the Red Knights' third consecutive victory over a ranked team.
They now move onto conference play with a home-and-home series this week with Chaska. The two teams will faceoff at 7 p.m., Tuesday, as the St. Louis Park Rec Center, before meeting again, Saturday, at 2 p.m., at the Chaska Community Center.
