Beavers open 2023-24 season with road trip to Lindenwood

BSU Women’s Hockey heads to Missouri for first series of 2023-24

The wait is over for the Bemidji State University Women’s Hockey team as it prepares to drop the puck on the 2023-24 season this weekend. The Beavers open the new season with a 760-mile road trip to Maryland Heights, Mo., to face Lindenwood University for a two-game series.

The Beavers (0-0-0) and Lions (0-0-0) will each play the first games of the new 2023-24 season for the non-conference series beginning Saturday, Sept. 23 and ending Sunday. The puck will officially drop on the new season Saturday at 7 p.m., followed by game two at 3 p.m.

Each game of the series will be streamed online at FloHockey.tv with play-by-play provided by Lindenwood. A Beaver Radio Network broadcast with Rob Aitken on play-by-play will be available for each game and can be found on the radio dial at 94.3 FM or online at www.beaverradionetwork.com.

Saturday and Sunday will be the 16th and 17th meeting between the two teams in their program histories.

Bemidji State dominates the all-time series history with a 12-2-1 record and has won the last five meetings between the two teams.

The Beavers earned the series sweep over the Lions in last year’s series at Sanford Center defeating the Lions 3-2 in overtime in game one and then scored the most goals all season in a 6-3 victory in game two.

Senior Taylor Nelson scored the game-winning overtime goal 1:30 into the extra period in game one and added another goal in game two to finish the series with two points.

The Beavers have out scored the Lions 57-21 in the series including 29-8 in Maryland Heights.

Bemidji State is 5-1-1 when playing in Maryland Heights.

Seniors Taylor Nelson and Gabbie Smith lead returning Beavers with three career points each against the Lions. Nelson paces the team with three goals in four games against LU while Smith has added a goal and two assists.

Sophomore Raeley Carney follows with two career goals against the Lions after registering her first career multi-goal effort in just the second game of her collegiate career.

Shelby Breiland, Alyssa Watkins, Calli Forsberg, Kendra Fortin and Mya Headrick have also tallied two points against the Lions.

Junior Abbie Thompson is the lone rostered Beaver to see time between the pipes against Lindenwood and is 1-0-0 after stopping 13-of-16 shots in game two of their series last year.

Head coach Jim Scanlan is 8-2-0 in his 10-year career coaching against Lindenwood.

2023-24 will be the 26th season of Bemidji State Women’s Hockey. In 26 seasons, the Beavers are 271-512-78 (.360).

Head coach Jim Scanlan enters his 10th season at the helm of the Bemidji State Women’s Hockey program. He is 118-172-21 (.413) in his coaching career, is one of 22 head coaches in Division I Women’s Hockey with 100 career victories and is sixth among active WCHA coaches in victories.

During the Summer, Scanlan announced the return of two former Beavers to his coaching staff for the upcoming season. Amber Fryklund makes her return as Associate Head Coach after pursuing a teaching career while former defenseman Alexis Joyce makes her coaching debut and was named an Assistant Coach.

They join Sarah Bobrowski (Assistant Coach) as the four leaders of the program for the season.

Senior Taylor Nelson was voted by her teammates to lead the 2023-24 Beavers on and off the ice and will dawn the “C” on her sweater. She will be assisted by fellow seniors Khloe Lund and Gabbie Smith who will serve as alternates and wear the “A”.

Bemidji State was picked eighth in this year’s WCHA Preseason Coaches’ Poll and will look to improve on a 5-30-1 2022-23 season.

The Beavers have 24 student-athletes rostered for the 2023-24 season with 14 forwards, six defensemen and four goaltenders.

BSU returns 15 athletes from last year (10 forwards, three defensemen, two goaltenders) and lost 10 athletes (4 forwards, five defensemen, one goaltender) to graduation or the transfer portal.

Scanlan has added nine newcomers to the squad with four forwards, three defensemen and two goaltenders.

BSU lost four of its top five scorers from last season and will have to replace 45 percent of its goals (18).

Junior Genevieve Hendrickson (2g-5a) and senior Khloe Lund (1g-6a) are the top scorers returning with each posting seven points in 30 games last season.

Nelson and sophomore Raeley Carney are the top returning goal scorers after each scored three goals.

Carney leads all returners with two power-play goals.

Bemidji State also lost its starting netminder from last year in Hannah Hogenson who started 30 of the team’s 36 games and played in 80 percent of the teams minutes in goal.

Junior Abbie Thompson is the top returning goaltender after starting six games last year and posted a 2-4-0 record with a 4.68 goals against average and .844 save percentage.

Bemidji State’s nine newcomers to the team are Olivia Dronen, Ana Davis, Talya Hendrickson, Kate Johnson, Shelby Sandberg, Riley Reeves, Hailey Armstrong and Eva Filippova.

The Beavers look to add goal scoring from some of the highest scoring players in the state of Minnesota. Talya Hendrickson and Kate Johnson helped Warroad High School to back-to-back Class A State Tournament championships with Talya, younger sister of BSU forward Genevieve Hendrickson, recording the second most points in both classes with 101 (38g-63a) and Johnson third with 98 (38g-60a). The pair combined for 572 points in their Warroad careers.

The 2023-24 BSU Women’s Hockey roster consists of 16 Minnesotans, one Alaskan, one North Dakotan, one Wisconsinite, four Canadians and the program’s first Russia native in freshman goaltender Eva Filippova.

The Beavers added one student-athlete out of the transfer portal in junior goaltender Emerald Kelley from Minnesota State University, Mankato.