Beavers resume league play with road trip to face Ferris State

BSU Men’s Hockey plays first series of 2024 at Ferris State

The Bemidji State University Men’s Hockey team plays its first series of 2024 this weekend and hits the road traveling to Big Rapids, Mich., to face Ferris State University for a Central Collegiate Hockey Association series.

The Beavers (8-12-0, 7-5-0 CCHA) face the Bulldogs (5-13-1, 3-8-0 CCHA) at Ewigleben Ice Arena for a two-game, league series beginning Friday, Jan. 5 and ending Saturday. Puck drop for game one is scheduled for 6:07 p.m. CT with game two at 5:07 p.m.

Bemidji State gets ready for the first series of 2024 and resumes CCHA play after last facing league competition on Dec. 14-15.

The Beavers hope to rebound from being swept by No. 14 St. Cloud State University in their last action on Dec. 29 and 31.

BSU is 7-5-0 against conference opponents this season but just 1-7-0 against non-conference opponents.

The Beavers went 3-3-0 during the month of December. Historically, they are 87-68-16 (.556) in January in the Beavers’ DI era.

Bemidji State enters the second half the season atop the CCHA standings with 22 league points.

However, just five points separates first place and fifth place in the standings ensuring a tight race for the MacNaughton Cup.

Bemidji State will see Ferris State for the first of two regular season meetings this season and will meet again Feb. 15-16 in Bemidji.

The Bulldogs sit eighth in the CCHA standings with eight league points and have lost their last six games with their last win coming Dec. 1, 2023 against University of St. Thomas (5-2).

Ferris State holds a slight edge over the Beavers in the all-time series with a 19-18-6 record.

However, the Beavers are 5-3-2 versus the Bulldogs over the last 10 meetings including going 2-1-1 against FSU last season.

Bemidji State won the last meeting between the two teams with a 6-2 victory in Big Rapids on Feb. 11, 2023. Then freshmen Kirklan Irey (2a) and Lleyton Roed (1g-1a) led the Beavers with two points each.

Most of Bemidji State’s victories over the Bulldogs have been on the road as 10 of the Beavers 18 victories have occurred in Big Rapids.

The Bemidji State-Ferris State rivalry began in the 1999-00 season but the two teams didn’t start playing for league points until 2013-14. When playing for points, the Beavers are 14-10-6 against the Bulldogs.

Sophomore Kirklan Irey leads active skaters with three points (1g-2a) in three career games against the Bulldogs averaging a point-per-game.

Junior goaltender Mattias Sholl has made the most starts against FSU and in five games, he is 1-3-1 with a .904 save percentage and 2.28 goals against average.

Head coach Tom Serratore is 18-19-4 against the Bulldogs in his 23 seasons at the helm of the Bemidji State Men’s Hockey program.

Bemidji State has battled injuries through the first half of the season yet sit atop the CCHA standings. The Beavers have 42 man-games lost due to injuries this season.

The Beavers will be without stalwart defenseman and captain Kyle Looft this weekend due to an injury suffered in the St. Cloud State series.

Looft will miss his first game since Nov. 9, 2019 snapping a 153 consecutive games played streak. He has played the most games by any Beaver defenseman with 157 career games played.

Looft is tied for the team lead with 19 points (5g-14a) and is the league’s highest scoring defenseman.

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

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

The Beavers play games two and three of a five-game road trip to start the second half of the season.

Bemidji State is fifth in the CCHA in goals scored per game averaging 2.75 while ranking eighth in goals against (3.75).

In conference only games, the Beavers are the second highest scoring team with 41 goals and average 3.42 goals per game.

The Beavers are fifth in the conference in power-play percentage at .165 (14-85) while its penalty kill is seventh at .723 (47-65).

Bemidji State’s 14 power-play goals this season is third most in the CCHA and tied for 21st in Division I.

The Beavers were held goal-less while on the power play going 0-for-5 against SCSU after going 4-for-15 (.267) against Bowling Green the series before.

BSU has scored multiple power-play goals in four games this season, tied for the most in the CCHA.

The Beavers have scored a power-play goal in 9-of-20 games this season.

In conference play, the Beavers score with the man-advantage at 20.8 percent (11-53), fourth best in the league.

BSU averages just 7:33 penalty minutes per game, the lowest average in Division I.

Bemidji State blocks the second-most shots in the league averaging 14.2 blocked shots per game and have totaled 284 on the season., second to Northern Michigan (303).

Bemidji State is led by sophomore Lleyton Roed and fifth-year senior Kyle Looft who have each totaled 19 points in 20 games.

Looft is the CCHA’s highest scoring defensemen and has produced the league’s second most assists (14) among all skaters.

Roed leads the team with nine goals and is tied for sixth in the CCHA.

Both Roed and Looft average 1.08 points per game in conference play ranking sixth in the league.

Roed has five points (1g-4a) over the last four games.

Junior Jere Vaisanen has consistently found the scoresheet as of late and carries a three-game point streak (1g-2a) into the weekend.

Nine Beavers have already tied or set career-highs for points in a season just 20 games into the year.

32 of the Beavers’ 55 goals have been scored by underclassmen (58.2%).

Bemidji State is 6-2-0 when scoring first this season but just 2-10-0 when the opponent scores first.

2023-24 is the 68th season of Bemidji State Men’s Hockey and 25th in Division I. The Beavers are 1,179-696-150 (.620) in 67 seasons and 393-402-102 (.496) in Division I.