BEMIDJI, Minn. — Philip Beaulieu and Casey Purpur found the back of the net less than three minutes apart late in the third period, but the Northern Michigan hockey team couldn't overcome an early deficit to WCHA leader Bemidji State Saturday night at the Sanford Center. 

The No. 13/14 Beavers used a four-goal first period to down the Wildcats, 5-2, and move to 11-0-1 in WCHA play.

Bemidji State raced out to a 2-0 lead in the game's first three minutes thanks to Phillip Marinaccio. First, at 0:52 on a man advantage, he corralled a Charlie O'Connor rebound, made a move like he was going to skate around the net and then stuffed the puck through Atte Tolvanen's skates. 

At the 3:00 mark, Marinaccio struck again after Brendan Harms stripped a Wildcat of the puck in the neutral zone to generate a 3-on-2 opportunity. Harms fed the puck over to Marinaccio, who beat Tolvanen stick side with a wrist shot.

The Beavers took advantage of their second power play of the game to extend their lead to 3-0. After some tic-tac-toe passing set up O'Connor for a look, the puck kicked out to Gerry Fitzgerald on the left edge of the crease. Fitzgerald roofed a shot past a sprawling Tolvanen at 6:15.

Northern Michigan didn't capitalize on its first man advantage of the weekend, but Bemidji State did. At 8:30, Arentz was sprung on a breakaway by Harms; he ultimately beat Mathias Israelsson, who relieved Tolvanen after Bemidji State's third goal, five hole.

The Wildcats had their two best scoring opportunities in the final six minutes of the period. First, with 5:13 left on the clock, Michael Bitzer was forced to deny a point-blank Troy Loggins bid and smother the puck before Dominik Shine could get a piece of it. Then, while on the man advantage, Beaulieu rang the crossbar with a booming point shot.

The second period was more even than the first, with the Beavers holding a slim 9-8 advantage in shots. Bemidji State extended its lead to 5-0 at 5:10 when Myles Fitzgerald took a Kyle Bauman feed and fired a low shot from the left circle past Israelsson.

Seconds after that goal, Luke Voltin was sprung on a breakaway, but Bitzer denied his backhanded try to keep Northern Michigan off the board. Near the halfway mark, Collin Peters had two quality chances in a row, nearly tipping a Beaulieu point shot past Bitzer and then sending a point-blank bid from the slot just wide.

With just under six minutes to play in the middle stanza, Loggins dropped a pass back to Robbie Payne for a one-timer. Bitzer made the initial save and then denied Loggins's attempt to pot the rebound.

At 14:46 of the third period, seconds after a Wildcat power play expired, Beaulieu went coast to coast to keep Bitzer from earning the shutout. After crossing the blueline into the Beaver end, he maneuvered his way through a crowd of players and then fired a shot into the upper right corner of the net.

Just 2:10 later, Purpur registered his first goal of the season to pull Northern Michigan within three, cashing in a Loggins rebound from the left hash mark.

With the loss, the Wildcats drop to 3-10-1 (1-8-1 WCHA) on the season. They return to action Nov. 25-26 when they welcome the NCHC's Omaha to the Berry Events Center.

NOTES: Bemidji State leads the all-time series, 9-4-3 ... The Wildcats outshot the Beavers, 28-27; they held a 15-2 advantage in the third period ... Beaulieu now owns a four-game point streak, the longest recorded by a Wildcat this season; he has five points (2g-3a) over that span ... Purpur is the 15th Wildcat to score a goal this season; he last registered a goal on Nov. 7, 2015 at Alaska ... Israelsson finished with 15 saves while Tolvanen made seven ... Northern Michigan was last swept in a road series on Nov. 27-28, 2015 at Bowling Green.