Beavers close out 2023 with home-and-home series with No. 14 St. Cloud State

BSU Men’s Hockey to face St. Cloud State after Holiday break

The Bemidji State University Men’s Hockey team closes out the 2023 calendar year with a home-and-home series with in-state rival No. 14 St. Cloud State University.

The Beavers (8-10-0, 7-5-0 CCHA) host the Huskies (9-5-2, 7-0-1 NCHC) at Sanford Center Friday, Dec. 29 for game one before heading south to St. Cloud for game two at Herb Brooks National Hockey Center. Puck drop for game one is scheduled for 7:07 p.m. at Sanford Center while game two in St. Cloud will begin at 4 p.m.

Bemidji State will look to improve upon a 46-51-8 all-time series record against the Huskies.

The Beavers and Huskies split last year’s home-and-home series over the New Year’s weekend with BSU upsetting then ranked No. 2 SCSU at Sanford Center but fell on the road in the series finale.

Bemidji State is just 1-7-2 against St. Cloud State over the last 10 meetings and have not won in St. Cloud since Dec. 3, 2011 (0-5-1).

BSU is 7-4-0 when playing at home this season but just 1-6-0 on the road.

The Beavers return to action after a 14-day break for the Holidays and are coming off a series sweep over Bowling Green State University at Sanford Center back on Dec. 14-15.

Junior Mattias Sholl made his return from injury in the series and didn’t skip a beat as he was named the CCHA Goaltender of the Week after stopping 34-of-37 shots.

He was joined by sophomore Vince Corcoran who posted a goal and assist in the series for his first career CCHA weekly award.

Bemidji State will be without two freshmen in this weekend’s series as Eric Pohlkamp and Kasper Magnussen compete for their respective nations at the 2024 IIHF World Junior Championship.

Bemidji State will play its first and only Friday-Sunday series of the season and is 3-6-0 when playing on Friday nights. The Beavers are 12-18-0 in its DI era when playing on Sundays.

The Bemidji State-St. Cloud State rivalry originates all the way back to the first season of Beaver Hockey in 1947-48. The teams have played 105 meetings in the all-time series.

Bemidji State head coach Tom Serratore is 5-21-4 when coaching against the Huskies in his 23 seasons at the helm of the BSU Men’s Hockey program.

Sunday will begin a five-game road trip for the Beavers.

Bemidji State is fourth in the CCHA in goals for per game averaging 2.93 while ranking seventh in goals against (3.50).

The Beavers are fifth in the conference in power-play percentage at .175 (14-80) while its penalty kill is seventh at .717 (38-53).

Bemidji State blocks the second-most shots in the league averaging 14.3 blocked shots per game and have totaled 257 on the season.

Looft is the CCHA’s highest scoring defensemen and is tied for eighth nationally. His five goals from the backend are tied for the fourth most by a defensemen in DI this season. He is tied for seventh among DI defensemen in points and tied for fifth in goals.

Senior Eric Martin has also found the scoring touch and has five points (2g-3a) over the last four games.

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.