Beavers open CCHA play at (RV) Michigan Tech
The Bemidji State University men’s hockey team drops the puck on the conference season this weekend by traveling to Michigan Technological University to face the (RV) Huskies for a Central Collegiate Hockey Association series. The Beavers and Huskies begin their two-game, CCHA series Friday, Oct. 21 at MacInnes Arena in Houghton, Mich., followed by the series finale Saturday. Puck drop for game one is scheduled for 6:07 p.m. CDT, and then 5:07 p.m., Saturday.
Both games will air on the Beaver Radio Network on 92.1 FM or online at www.beaverradionetwork.com.
Bemidji State is 20-19-6 all-time against the Huskies but its 6-10-5 when playing in Houghton.
The Beavers and Huskies last met in the CCHA Playoffs semifinal round last year where BSU earned a 5-2 victory and advanced to the CCHA Championship. In their regular season series in Houghton a year ago, Michigan Tech swept the Beavers by scores of 5-2 in both games.
Including regular season and postseason, Bemidji State went 2-3-0 against the Huskies last season.
Fifth-year senior Ross Armour and senior Elias Rosén lead all returners with nine career points against the Huskies with Armour leading the Beavers with three goals and Rosén adding two.
Senior Will Zmolek leads all active skaters with a career on-ice rating of +9 against MTU with Armour and Kyle Looft following with a +7 rating.
Sophomore Mattias Sholl has seen the most action against Michigan Tech and is 2-2-0 with a .893 save percentage and 3.28 goals against average.
His fellow netminder Gavin Enright has made one start against the Huskies and is 0-1-0 with a .886 save percentage and 4.06 goals against average.
Both the Beavers and Huskies are receiving votes in the DCU/USCHO.com national poll but just the Huskies are receiving votes in teh USAToday/USAHockeyMagazine poll. Michigan Tech is receiving 10 more points than the Beavers in the poll.
The Beavers have a lot of turnover from its 2021-22 roster that finished third during the Central Collegiate Hockey Association regular season and advance all the way to the CCHA Championship game.
Bemidji State graduated five of its top-10 scorers from last season including all three of its top-three scorers.
The Beavers graduated 82 of the team’s 118 goals from a year ago for a percentage of 69.5 percent of the team’s scoring.
Head coach Tom Serratore and his staff has attempted to supplement that loss of scoring by adding three transfer students with at least two years of collegiate experience as well as seven freshmen to the team.
One of those transfers is Mitchell Martan from Canisius College who has already made an impact to the team. After being shutout in their first game against Arizona State, Martan factored in on four of the Beavers five goals in game two including scoring the game-winning, overtime goal.
Martan finished the game with four points off two goals and two assists and was voted the CCHA Forward of the Week the following Monday.
Other notable performances on the season-opening weekend were sophomore Jere Vaisanen and junior Eric Martin who each recorded three points on Saturday.
Martin tied a career-high with three assists in the game while Vaisanen totaled three points (1g-2a) for the first time in his career.
Bemidji State’s top returning scorer is senior Elias Rosén who is coming off a 26-point (7g-22a) season where he was a 2021-22 All-CCHA First Team selection, Scholar-Athlete and All-Academic Team selection.
Rosén recorded an assist in game two but was inches away from scoring twice in the series after hitting the crossbar twice.
Rosén will also serve as an alternate captain this season and was named to the 2022-23 Preseason All-CCHA team.
Rosén has appeared in 100 career games for the Beavers in his four seasons and has amassed 67 points (17g-50a) to rank 22nd on the Beavers’ career scoring list for defensemen. He is fourth on the list for defensemen during BSU’s Division I era and is one point shy of tying Justin Baudry for third.
Fifth-year senior Ross Armour will co-captain the team with senior defenseman Kyle Looft while Rosén and senior Will Zmolek will serve as alternates.
Bemidji State’s top returning skaters include Rosén (26pts), Martin (19pts), Armour (16pts), Zmolek (15pts), Jere Vaisanen (8pts) and Looft (8pts).
The Beavers return all three goaltenders from last season including sophomore Mattias Sholl who led the team with 26 games played and posted a 13-13-0 record with a .904 save percentage, 2.75 goals against average. Junior Gavin Enright follows after appearing in 14 games and posted a 5-6-0 record with a .889 save percentage and 3.37 GAA. Senior Michael Carr also made four appearances and was 1-1-0 with a .868 save percentage and 4.01 goals against average.
Bemidji State’s strength is its returning defense as it returns six of its eight defensemen from last season including four in its top six pairings.
Last season, the Beavers finished fourth in the CCHA by holding opponents to 3.10 goals per game and third on the penalty kill with a .805 penalty-kill percentage.
Tom Serratore is in his 22nd season at the helm of the Bemidji State Men’s Hockey program and owns a 355-329-92 career record.
Through the first two games of the season, Bemidji State is averaging 2.50 goals per game and allowing 3.50 goals per game for scoring margin of -1.00 which is fifth in the conference.
Bemidji State leads the nation with a face-off win percentage of .620 but is third to last with 62 face-off wins after most teams have played four games already.
Armour led the Beavers in the face-off circle and won 68.4 percent of draws (26-of-38) in the season-opening series.
Bemidji State went 2-for-6 on the power play against Arizona State which leads the CCHA but is the least amount of chances in the league.
The Beavers’ penalty kill allowed two goals on four chances for a penalty kill percentage of .500.