Beavers set for home-and-home series with No. 14 Bulldogs

BSU Men’s Hockey faces No. 14 Minnesota Duluth in second week of 2023-24

After an exciting opening weekend for the Bemidji State University Men’s Hockey team, the Beavers get ready for week two of the season and prepare for a home-and-home, non-conference series with No. 14 University of Minnesota Duluth this weekend.

The home-and-home series will begin in Duluth, Minn., where the Beavers (1-1-0) and Bulldogs (1-0-2) drop the puck in AMSOIL Arena at 7:07 p.m., Friday, Oct. 20. The two teams will then travel west to Bemidji for game two at Sanford Center Saturday with puck drop slated for 6:07 p.m.

Game one will be streamed online at NCHC.tv with play-by-play provided by UMD Athletics. Game two will be streamed online at FloHockey.tv with play-by-play provided by the Beaver Radio Network with Brian Schultz on play-by-play. A radio broadcast for each game can be found on the dial at 92.1 FM or online at www.beaverradionetwork.com.

The Bemidji State-Minnesota Duluth cross state rivalry began in 1948, the second season of Beaver Hockey, and has spanned 75 years and 46 all-time meetings.

After beginning the all-time series with 10 consecutive victories, the Bulldogs own a 25-16-5 edge in the all-time series record.

The Beavers have had more recent success over the Bulldogs and are 6-4-4 over the last 14 games including a seven-game unbeaten streak (5-0-2) from 2012 to 2016.

However, the Bulldogs are on a five-game unbeaten streak (3-0-2) of their own including a 1-0-1 record versus the Beavers in last year’s home-and-home series.

The Beavers and Bulldogs have played a home-and-home series since the 2015-16 season but did not face each other from the 2018-19 season until 2021-22.

Most of the series’ games have taken place in Duluth where the Bulldogs are 17-7-2 against the Beavers. Bemidji State is 7-8-3 when facing UMD at home.

Bemidji State’s last victory over UMD as Oct. 13, 2017 in Bemidji and have not won at AMSOIL Arena since Feb. 9, 2016.

Minnesota Duluth enters the weekend’s action as the No. 14 team in both the USA Hockey/The Rink Live and USCHO.com National Polls.

Bemidji State is coming off a 1-1-0 weekend during the 2023 Ice Breaker Tournament that opened the 2023-24 season for the Beavers.

The Beavers played two overtime games over the weekend falling 4-3 in overtime against University of Wisconsin to open the season but then responded with a 3-2 overtime win versus Army-West Point the next night.

Junior goaltender Mattias Sholl broke a 34-year program record Friday night versus the Badgers after he stopped a program record 57 shots in a losing effort. The performance broke Steve O’Shea’s previous record of 54 saves set in 1988-89.

Sophomore Lleyton Roed shined the following night after he scored the game-winning goal 59 seconds into the three-on-three overtime against the Black Knights.

Minnesota Duluth is coming off a 1-0-1 weekend against Northern Michigan University at AMSOIL Arena this past weekend in a series that featured 23 goals scored between the two teams. The two teams played to a 5-5 tie in game one while the Bulldogs responded with an 8-5 victory in game two.

UMD sophomore Ben Steeves was named the NCHC Forward of the Week after a six-point (4g-2a) weekend.

The Beavers were led by senior Jackson Jutting who totaled three points (1g-2a) over the weekend including a two-point effort (1g-1a) versus the Badgers.

He is followed by Roed (2g), sophomore Kirklan Irey (1g-1a), fifth-year senior Carter Jones (2a) and senior Eric Martin (2a) who each recorded two points.

10 of the Beavers’ 22 skaters over the weekend recorded a point and saw five different goal scorers.

Underclassmen scored five of the Beavers’ six goals in the opening series including freshman Eric Pohlkamp who scored his first collegiate goal against Army.

The Brainerd defenseman led the Beavers with 10 shots over the weekend including seven versus the Black Knights. He leads the CCHA averaging 5.00 shots per game.

Head coach Tom Serratore is 16-17-5 coaching against the Bulldogs.

Bemidji State opened the season going 1-for-11 while on the power play while its penalty kill allowed two goals in eight penalty kills.

Roed scored the lone power-play goal for the Beavers.

2023-24 is the 68th season of Bemidji State Men’s Hockey and 25th in Division I. The Beavers are 1,172-685-150 (.624) in 67 seasons and 386-391-102 (.501) in Division I.

Head coach Tom Serratore enters his 23rd season at the helm of the Bemidji State Men’s Hockey program. He is 369-345-97 (.515) in his coaching career.

Serratore stands 12th in career victories among active head coaches in Division I and his career winning percentage of .515 is 17th.

Since taking over the Bemidji State Men’s Hockey program in 2001, Serratore’s teams have achieved six regular-season conference championships, three CHA tournament titles, five NCAA Tournament appearances, one NCAA Frozen Four appearance (2009) and is a seven-time conference Coach of the Year.

During the off-season, Serratore announced the addition of two assistants to his coaching staff. Andrew Magera (Penn State ’21) and Brock Kautz (Minnesota ’19) will each serve as assistant coaches for the 2023-24 season.

They join Associate Head Coach Travis Winter as the four leaders of the program this season.

Fifth-year senior Kyle Looft made his return to the Beaver Hockey program and was voted by his teammates to lead the 2023-24 Beavers on and off the ice as the team’s captain.

He is assisted by fellow fifth-year senior Carter Jones as well as seniors Eric Martin and Jackson Jutting who will wear the “A”.

Bemidji State was voted to finish fourth by league coaches in this year’s CCHA Preseason Coaches’ Poll. The Beavers were voted to finish fifth by members of the league’s media.

Freshman Eric Pohlkamp (Brainerd, Minn.) was voted as the league’s Preseason Rookie of the Year in both the coaches and media polls while Looft was selected to the Preseason All-CCHA Team by the media.

BSU returns 21 athletes from 2022-23 (11 forwards, eight defensemen, two goaltenders) and lost 8 athletes (five forwards, two defensemen, one goaltender) to graduation.

Serratore has added seven newcomers to the squad with five forwards, one defensemen and one goaltender.

One of those newcomers is Eric Pohlkamp who was selected in the fifth round (132nd) of the NHL’s 2023 Entry Draft. He is the first Beaver NHL Draft pick since Radoslav Illo was selected in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft (139th).

Pohlkamp is the sixth Beaver to be drafted into the NHL joining Illo, Chris Peluso (seventh round – Pittsburgh – 194th), Andrew Murray (eighth round – Columbus – 242nd), Gary Sargent (third round – Los Angeles – 48th) and Dale Smedsmo (seventh round – Toronto – 93rd).

The Beavers return their leading scorer from 2022-23 in sophomore Lleyton Roed. Roed was the first BSU freshman since Matt Read (2007-08) to lead the team in scoring.

He played in all 36 games and posted 31 points off 13 goals and 18 assists, the fifth highest point total by a Beaver freshman in its DI era.

Roed was tied for seventh in the CCHA among all skaters in scoring and 11th in goals and was the leagues leading freshman point getter and finished 19th nationally.

The Beavers graduated four of its top five scorers from last year and following Roed, junior Jere Vasanen is the next top returner after posting 17 points (7g-10a) in 36 games.

Roed and Looft are the Beavers’ top returning power-play goal scorers after the pair each netted three goals on a BSU power play unit that finished third in the CCHA last year.

Bemidji State returns starting goaltender Mattias Sholl who started 30 of the team’s 36 games last year.

Sholl posted a 11-13-5 record in net and was third in the CCHA with a 2.26 goals against average and sixth in save percentage (.908).

He is joined by senior Gavin Enright as well as newcomer Raythan Robbins (Anchorage, Alaska).

The 2023-24 Beaver roster consists of 28 student-athletes with two fifth-year seniors, five seniors, seven juniors, seven sophomores and seven freshmen.

The team consists of 11 Minnesotans, 22 from North America including five Canadians and six from Europe.

By average, the Beavers stand as one of the smallest in Division I. They are the eighth smallest by height averaging 5’11.8″ and second smallest by weight averaging 180.5 pounds.

Looft returns as one the most seasoned defensemen in college hockey and has played in the second most games in DI by a defensemen at 137. He trails T.J. Lloyed of Alaska by one game.