Beavers host Falcons for rare Thursday-Friday series

Bemidji State Men’s Hockey hosts Bowling Green State before Holiday break

The Bemidji State University Men’s Hockey team will play a rare Thursday-Friday series this weekend to close out play before the Holiday break and hosts Bowling Green State University.

The Beavers (6-10-0, 5-5-0 CCHA) host the Falcons (7-11-0, 5-5-0 CCHA) at Sanford Center for their final Central Collegiate Hockey Association series of the calendar year. Game one is Thursday, Dec. 14 followed by game two, Friday. Puck drop for both games is scheduled for 7:07 p.m.

The Beavers will look to pull ahead in the tight CCHA standings before all teams play their final league series before league play resumes Jan. 5.

Bemidji State sits fourth in the CCHA series entering the weekend with 16 league points and holds a one-point lead over fifth, sixth and seventh place Northern Michigan University, Bowling Green and Lake Superior State University.

First an seventh place in the standings is separated by just six points with University of St. Thomas holding first place with 21 points.

Bemidji State will need to take advantage of playing at home as four out of six league series in the second half of the season are on the road.

This weekend’s series will be the last time the Beavers have a chance to secure league points at home until Feb. 15-16.

The Beavers are coming off a series split with Lake Superior State last weekend at Sanford Center.

Bemidji State dominated in the series opener tying a season-high of seven goals to win 7-1 but the Lakers bounced back winning 6-1 in the series finale Saturday.

Fifth-year senior Carter Jones led the Beavers in the series scoring three goals and adding an assist and was named the CCHA Forward of the Week for the first time in his career.

The Bemidji State-Bowling Green series dates back to 2011 but began playing for league points in 2014.

The Falcons lead the all-time series with a 20-17-3 record but the Beavers are 12-7-2 versus BGSU when hosting them at Sanford Center.

The last 10 matchups have been split down the middle with each team earning five wins but the Falcons got the best of the Beavers in their lone series last year sweeping the Beavers in Bowling Green, Ohio.

The host team has won the last four meetings between the Beavers and Falcons.

Bemidji State and BGSU have met eight times in the post season most recently in the first round of the 2022 CCHA Playoffs. Bowling Green is 5-3-0 against the Beavers in postseason play.

Bemidji State head coach Tom Serratore is 17-20-3 when coaching against the Falcons in his 23 seasons at the helm of the BSU Men’s Hockey program.

Fifth-year senior Kyle Looft leads the Beavers with 15 career games played versus the Falcons and he is tied with senior Eric Martin with four career points against them.

Martin paces the team with two career goals scored against BGSU.

Junior Mattias Sholl leads BSU netminders with eight appearances versus the Falcons and is 3-5-0 with a .909 save percentage and 2.54 goals against average.

Senior Gavin Enright has made one appearance in his career versus Bowling Green and stopped a career-high 40-of-41 shots at home on Oct. 30, 2021.

Bemidji State remains out of the USAToday/The Rink Live and USCHO.com top-20 national polls with the Falcons also unranked in the polls.

The Beavers will play games three and four of their five-game homestand this weekend.

Bemidji State is fifth in the CCHA in goals for per game averaging 2.81 while ranking eighth in goals against (3.75).

The Beavers are seventh in the conference in power-play percentage at .154 (10-65) while its penalty kill is eighth at .681 (32-47).

Bemidji State blocks the second-most shots in the league averaging 14.6 blocked shots per game and have totaled 233 on the season.

BSU averages the least amount of shots on goal per game in the league (26.2) but have made the most of its opportunities tying for second in shooting percentage (11%).

Bemidji State is the least penalized team in the nation with just 105 penalty minutes.

Bemidji State is led by one of top scoring defenseman in the country in Kyle Looft. Looft has totaled 18 points (5g-13a) to lead all league defensemen in points as well as goals. He is tied for seventh among DI defensemen in points and tied for fifth in goals.

Looft recorded two assists in Friday’s 7-1 win over LSSU for his fifth multi-point game of the season and has six assists over his last five games. The Mankato, Minn., native is now among the top-50 scoring defensemen in BSU history ranking 50th with 43 career points (14g-29a).

The last time a defenseman led the Beavers in scoring at the end of the season was Justin Baudry in 2018-19.

The Beavers have only had 3 defensemen lead the team in scoring at the end of the season in its DI era (Justin Baudry, Matt Prapavessis, Stefan Bjork).

Sophomore Lleyton Roed leads the team with eight goals and is second with 14 points.

Roed’s eight goals are tied for seventh most in the CCHA.

Roed has recorded five points (1g-4a) over the last five games but hasn’t scored a goal since Nov. 18.

Carter Jones has the hottest stick as of late and over the last nine games, he has 10 points (3g-7a) including a four-point series last weekend.

Jones is third on the team with 13 points (3g-10a) on the season and his 0.63 assist per game average is tied for the eighth best in the league.

The line of Jones, Eric Martin and Austin Jouppi clicked last weekend scoring four of the team’s eight goals against LSSU.

Senior Austin Jouppi had a career-best weekend recording four points (4a) including a career-high three assist night Friday. The Duluth, Minn., native has a career-high nine points off one goal and eight assists.

Bemidji State will be without two of its top freshmen this season as Eric Pohlkamp and Kasper Magnussen will travel to their respective training camps to compete for a roster spot in the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championships Dec. 13-17. mPohlkamp will be vying for one of 25 roster spots for USA in Plymouth, Mich., while Magnussen travels to Sweden to compete for a spot on Norway’s roster. The two are seeking to become the first two active members of the BSU Men’s Hockey team to compete at the World Junior Championship. Radoslav Illo, Sam Solensky, Annsi Tierenta, Miika Lindholm and Jakub Lewandowski (B Pool) competed for their respective countries as recruits.

19 different Beavers have recorded a point and have seen 15 different goal scorers.

25 of the Beavers’ 45 goals this season have been scored by underclassmen (55.6 percent).

Bemidji State has surrendered the first goal in 10-of-15 games this season and are out-scored 15-25 in the first period.

BSU is 2-8-0 when the opponent scores first and 4-2-0 when it scores first.

Four of the Beavers’ 10 losses this season have come during the overtime period. BSU is 1-4-0 when needing extra time.

In regulation, the Beavers are 5-6-0.

Bemidji State is 2-6-0 when playing on Friday nights and 4-4-0 on Saturdays.

2023-24 is the 68th season of Bemidji State Men’s Hockey and 25th in Division I. The Beavers are 1,177-694-150 (.620) in 67 seasons and 391-400-102 (.496) in Division I.