Bemidji State travels to Minnesota State for final road test of regular season

BSU Women’s Hockey travels to Minnesota State for weekend WCHA series

The Bemidji State University Women’s Hockey team gears up for its final road trip of the regular season this weekend and will travel south to Mankato, Minn., to take on (RV) Minnesota State University, Mankato for a pair of Western Collegiate Hockey Association games.

The Beavers (5-24-1, 2-22-0 WCHA) travel to face the Mavericks (13-16-1, 7-16-1 WCHA) for their second and final meeting of the regular season. The Beavers and Mavericks split their first series of the season back on Oct. 28-29 at Sanford Center. Game one of their WCHA series is set to begin Friday, Feb. 10 at 6:00 p.m., followed by game two Saturday at 3:00 p.m.

Each game will be streamed online at B1G+ with play-by-play provided by MSU Athletics. 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 for 99 meetings.

Bemidji State holds the all-time series record between the two teams with a 46-38-15 record but are just 2-7-1 against the Mavericks in the last 10 games.

When playing in Mankato, the Beavers are 23-21-5 against the Mavericks but have not won in Mankato since Nov. 23, 2019 (0-5-1).

In their first meeting of the 2022-23, Bemidji State earned a 2-1 victory over the Mavericks for its third win of the season that snapped an eight-game winless streak (0-7-1).

Junior Shelby Breiland scored her first collegiate goal in the game, senior Reece Hunt netted the game-winning goal and junior Hannah Hogenson made 26-of-27 saves to power the Beavers to victory.

The Mavericks responded in game two however and shut out the Beavers 3-0 after MSU’s Alexa Berg turned aside all 27 shots by BSU.

Senior Reece Hunt leads active skaters with six points (1g-5a) in 14 career games against Minnesota State while junior Taylor Nelson follows with three (1g-2a) in nine games.

Junior Hannah Hogenson is the lone BSU netminder to see action between the pipes against the Mavericks and has posted a 2-2-1 record with a .915 save percentage and 2.36 goals against average in five starts.

The Beavers ended their season-long 11-game losing streak last weekend after splitting its home series with University of St. Thomas. After falling in game one 3-0, the Beavers responded to score four goals in a 4-1 victory in game two.

Junior Khloe Lund factored in on all four goals for the Beavers in Saturday’s victory for her first career multi-point effort. She tallied a goal and three assists in the game which was her first collegiate goal.

BSU enters the weekend’s action eighth in the WCHA standings with six points and an 2-22-0 league record while the Mavericks are sixth with 24 points and a 7-16-1 league record.

Bemidji State will attempt to win its first road games of the season this weekend and are 0-14-1 when playing away from its home rink.

Minnesota State remains at home this weekend after hosting No. 7 University of Minnesota Duluth. The Mavericks lost game one 4-3 but then rebounded with a 0-0 tie with UMD winning in the shootout.

The Mavericks are winless in their last six games (0-5-1) but went on a six-game winning streak before the losing skid.

Bemidji State has had its issues scoring the puck this season and are last in the conference in goals for (35) as well as goals against (130).

BSU is sixth in the WCHA with a power-play percentage of .152 (10-of-66). The Beavers went 1-for-5 on the power-play in last weekend’s series with Hunt netting the power-play goal.

The Beavers rank seventh on the penalty-kill with a percentage of .800 (76-of-95). BSU’s penalty kill went six-for-six last weekend and have killed off the last seven power plays.

The Beavers are the second-most penalized team in the conference by averaging 8:34 penalty minute per game. They trail conference leader St. Cloud State who averages 9:46 penalty minutes per game.

Bemidji State is second in the WCHA in blocked shots with 442 and totaled 21 blocked shots last weekend.

Bemidji State is led on offense by senior Reece Hunt and sophomore Adriana Van De Leest who each have totaled eight points.

Van De Leest paces the team with eight assists while sophomore Claire Vekich leads the team with six goals and Hunt follows with four.

Four of Vekich’s goals have been on the power play which leads the team and is the most since Emma Terres also recorded four during the 2017-18 season.

Vekich has scored three goals over the past five games.

The Beavers have seen 18 different goal scorers this season including nine with two or more goals.

Bemidji State is fifth in the conference with a team face-off win percentage of .507. Senior Paige Anderson leads the team and is 11th in the conference with 219 face-off wins and is .514 percent on the draw.

Junior Hannah Hogenson leads BSU netminders and has played in 83.5 percent of the teams minutes in goal this season. She is 3-22-1 with a 4.08 goals against average and .878 save percentage. She leads the conference and is seventh in DI with 736 saves.

Sophomore Abbie Thompson made her first start since Jan. 14 last Saturday and earned her first WCHA victory after stopping a career-high 30-of-31 shots. She is now 2-2-0 in her sophomore campaign and has posted a 4.76 goals against average and .856 save percentage.

Head Jim Scanlan is coaching in his 306th and 307th games this weekend and is 118-166-21 in his nine seasons at the helm of the Bemidji State program.

Scanlan is 19-13-5 all-time coaching against the Mavericks.