Whew!

The Mavericks opened up leads of 2-0 and 4-1 and held off a hard charge by Bemidji State to eke out a 4-3 win.

The victory snapped a four-game losing streak against the Beavers and increased the Mavericks' unbeaten streak to five games (3-0-2), but the players acted as if they were fortunate to escape with a win.

After going up 4-1 on James Gaulrapp's goal at 3:04 of the second period, Minnesota State mustered just seven shots on goal over the final 36-plus minutes.

"We know we're better than how we played," Gaulrapp said. "We were nervous. They came at us and didn't do much about it."

Jason Wiley had two assists, and Mick Berge, Trevor Bruess and Brian Kilburg scored the other goals. Mike Zacharias finished with 31 saves.

The Mavericks' penalty kill was outstanding again, blanking the Beavers on six opportunities. That included a somewhat questionable charging call on Geoff Irwin with 2:25 to play. Irwin and Bemidji goalie Matt Dalton raced for a lose puck in the high slot. Dalton got to it first and Irwin crashed into him.

"I think our penalty kill has been really good," Wiley said. "It's been solid how many games in a row? But we took way too many penalties. We have to stay out of the box or that's going to catch up to us eventually."