Men’s Hockey drops the puck on 2022-23 season this weekend

The Bemidji State University men’s hockey team drops the puck on its 2022-23 season this weekend and hosts Arizona State University in part of Sanford Health Breast Cancer Awareness Weekend. The Beavers and Sun Devils begin their two-game, non-conference series Friday, Oct. 7 at Sanford Center and then play the series finale Saturday. Puck drop for game one is scheduled for 7:07 p.m., and then 6:07 p.m., Saturday.

Both games will be aired live by the Beaver Radio Network.

Bemidji State is 3-1-0 all-time against the Sun Devils but split last season’s two game series in Tempe, Ariz.

The Beavers earned a 4-3 victory in game one of last season’s series but fell 6-4 in game two.

Bemidji State and Arizona State have previously played at Sanford Center during the 2015-16 season with the Beavers earning two shutout victories by scores of 5-0 and 2-0.

Fifth-year senior Ross Armour and senior Elias Rosén lead all returners with three career points against the Sun Devils with the pair each recording a goal and two assists in two games.

Sophomore Mattias Sholl is the lone BSU netminder with a win against ASU after he earned a 4-3 victory last season after stopping 23-of-26 shots.

Both the Beavers and Sun Devils are receiving votes in both the DCU/USCHO.com and USAToday/USAHockeyMagazine national polls with both polls having ASU slightly ahead in the rankings.

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.

Bemidji State’s top scorer who is returning 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 will also serve as an alternate captain this season and was named to the 2022-23 Preseason All-CCHA team.

Rosén has appeared in 98 career games for the Beavers in his three seasons and has amassed 66 points (17g-49) to rank 24th on the Beavers’ career scoring list for defensemen. He is fourth on the list for defensemen during BSU’s Division I era.

Following Rosén, is junior Eric Martin who totaled 19 points off three goals and 16 assists last season. His 16 assists were the fifth most on the team.

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 begins his 22nd season at the helm of the Bemidji State Men’s Hockey program and owns a 354-328-92 career record.