Beavers conclude regular season by hosting No. 8 Minnesota Duluth
BSU Women’s Hockey celebrates three seniors for final home series
The final week of the 2022-23 regular season is upon the Bemidji State University Women’s Hockey team and the Beavers prepare to put a bow on its season this weekend at Sanford Center.
The Beavers (5-26-1, 2-24-0 WCHA) host their final Western Collegiate Hockey Association series of the season and play host to cross-state rival No. 8 University of Minnesota Duluth. The Beavers and Bulldogs (21-8-3, 15-8-3 WCHA) each close out their regular seasons with the two-game, league series that begins Friday, Feb. 17 at 3:01 p.m., at Sanford Center and ending Saturday at 2:01 p.m.
Bemidji State will honor its three seniors, Paige Anderson, Abby DeLaRosa and Reece Hunt following the game Saturday afternoon in part of Senior Day.
Each game will be streamed online at B1G+ with play-by-play provided by the Beaver Radio Network. A Beaver Radio Network broadcast with Kelly Schultz on the call will be available for each game and can be found on the radio dial at 94.3 FM or online at www.beaverradionetwork.com.
The Bemidji State-Minnesota State series dates back to the inaugural season of Bemidji State Women’s Hockey in 1998-99 and the two teams have faced off against each other in all 25 season of Bemidji State Women’s Hockey.
The Beavers and Bulldogs have faced each other the most out of any other program in Division I hockey and battled each other 112 times.
Minnesota Duluth dominates the all-time series record and is 86-22-4 when facing the Beavers.
The Bulldogs have also been dominant as of late and are 8-2-0 in their last 10 meetings including a seven-game winning streak.
Bemidji State’s last win over UMD was on Jan. 22, 2021 a 1-0 overtime victory at Sanford Center.
When playing in Bemidji, the Beavers are just 10-37-1 against the Bulldogs.
In their first series of 2022-23, Minnesota Duluth earned the series sweep over the Beavers back in Duluth, Minn., on Jan. 13-14. UMD earned an 8-1 victory to lead-off the series and the followed with a 5-0 victory in game two.
Senior Reece Hunt scored the lone goal for the Beavers in the series for her third of the season.
Hunt paces the Beavers with 10 career points (5g-5a) in 15 career games versus the Bulldogs while sophomore Claire Vekich follows with two points (1g-1a) in six career games.
Junior Hannah Hogenson has seen the most time between the pipes against UMD and is 0-4-0 with a 7.01 goals against average and .834 save percentage. Sophomore Abbie Thompson follows and is 0-1-0 with a 5.29 goals against average and .842 save percentage.
Bemidji State is looking to end the 2022-23 regular season on a high note after being swept by (RV) Minnesota State University, Mankato in its final road series last weekend.
After leading 2-1 entering the third period in Friday’s game against the Mavericks, MSU responded to score the next two goals to claim the 3-2 victory. The Mavericks then clinched the series sweep with a 4-0 victory in game two.
Freshman McKayla Zilisch scored her first collegiate goal in the series while Hunt scored her fifth goal of the season. Sophomore Ella Anick assisted on both of the Beaver goals for her second career multi-point effort.
BSU enters the weekend’s action eighth in the WCHA standings with six points and an 2-24-0 league record while the Bulldogs are fourth with 48 points and a 15-8-3 league record.
Bemidji State can either finish eighth in the league standings or move up to seventh but will need to sweep the Bulldogs and University of Minnesota to sweep University of St. Thomas this weekend.
Bemidji State’s first round opponent for the WCHA Playoffs is yet to be determined and could either travel to Ohio State University, Minnesota or University of Wisconsin depending on this weekend’s results.
The WCHA started its postseason awards rollout this weekend and the Bemidji State Women’s Hockey team lead the league with 19 Beavers named to the WCHA All-Academic Team and 16 named WCHA Scholar-Athletes.
It is the second consecutive season that Bemidji State had the most student-athletes named to the All-Academic and Scholar-Athlete teams.
Minnesota Duluth has locked up the fourth seed in the WCHA Playoffs and will either host Minnesota State or St. Cloud State in the first round.
The Bulldogs are the eighth ranked team in both the DCU/USCHO.com and USAToday/USAHockeyMagazine top-15 national polls entering the weekend.
The Bulldogs are looking to get back to their winning ways and are 2-2-2 in their last six games.
Minnesota Duluth went 1-0-1 against St. Cloud State last weekend and earned four points against the Huskies.
Bemidji State has had its issues scoring the puck this season and are last in the conference in goals for (37) as well as goals against (137).
BSU is sixth in the WCHA with a power-play percentage of .137 (10-of-73). The Beavers went 0-for-8 on the power-play in last weekend’s series.
The Beavers rank seventh on the penalty-kill with a percentage of .808 (80-of-99). BSU’s penalty kill went four-for-four last weekend and have killed off the last 11 power plays.
The Beavers are the second-most penalized team in the conference by averaging 8:20 penalty minute per game. They trail conference leader St. Cloud State who averages 9:43 penalty minutes per game.
Bemidji State is second in the WCHA in blocked shots with 464 and blocked 22 shots last weekend.
Bemidji State is led on offense by senior Reece Hunt who has totaled nine points off five goals and four assists. She leads the senior class with 56 career points (19g-37a) in 122 career games.
Sophomore Adriana Van De Leest follows with eight points and has collected eight assists to lead the team.
Sophomore Claire Vekich leads the team with six goals and has posted six points. She also leads the team with four power-play goals which is tied for eighth in the WCHA.
The Beavers have seen 18 different goal scorers this season including nine with two or more goals.
Senior Paige Anderson is 10th in the conference with 446 face-offs taken. She has won 226 face-offs for a .507 winning percentage.
Sophomore Taylor Larson paces the team with 50 blocked shots and is eighth in the conference.
Junior Hannah Hogenson leads BSU netminders and has played in 81.4 percent of the teams minutes in goal this season. She is 3-23-1 with a 4.04 goals against average and .879 save percentage. She leads the conference and is eighth in DI with 762 saves.
Head Jim Scanlan is coaching in his 308th and 309th games this weekend and is 118-168-21 in his nine seasons at the helm of the Bemidji State program.
Scanlan is 18-27-2 all-time coaching against the Bulldogs.