Beavers make return to Sanford Center after 63-day hiatus to host No. 4/5 Gophers

BSU Women’s Hockey returns to Sanford Center to host No. 4/5 Minnesota

After an eight-game stretch of road games, the Bemidji State University Women’s Hockey team finally returns to Sanford Center to host No. 4/5 University of Minnesota this weekend, Jan. 19-20.

The Beavers (3-18-1, 2-14-0 WCHA) return home from a 63-day period from its last home game (Nov. 18) to host the Golden Gophers (16-5-1, 10-5-1 WCHA) for a Western Collegiate Hockey Association series. Game one of the series will be Friday, Jan. 19 at 6:01 p.m., with game two to follow Saturday at 3:01 p.m.

Bemidji State plays its first series at home since Nov. 17-18, a 63-day stretch away from home.

The Beavers face their eighth nationally ranked opponent this weekend in the No. 4/5 Golden Gophers.

Eight of the Beavers’ 11 opponents this season have been ranked in the national polls including four in the top five.

Bemidji State will face its third consecutive top-10 opponent this weekend.

The Beavers are 0-13-0 versus nationally ranked opponents.

Bemidji State is returning home from a series at No. 7 University of Minnesota Duluth.

The Beavers fell in both games against the Bulldogs with UMD earning 2-0 and 7-0 victories.

BSU has lost three consecutive games and is looking for its first win since Dec. 29.

The Beavers sit seventh in the WCHA standings entering the weekend holding six points and are 2-14-0 in league play.

Bemidji State will face Minnesota for the second series this season. The Gophers swept the Beavers in their last series on Dec. 1-2, outscoring BSU 18-3 in the series.

The line of Genevieve Hendrickson, Talya Hendrickson and Kate Johnson scored all three goals and nine points in the series at Ridder Arena.

All hailing from Warroad, Minn., and played high school hockey for the Warriors, the trio is nicknamed the “Warroad Line”.

Bemidji State is 9-92-7 all-time against the Gophers and 3-43-3 at home.

Minnesota has won the last 20 meetings between the two teams, the longest winning streak in the series history.

Bemidji State’s last win over Minnesota was Dec. 2, 2017.

Head coach Jim Scanlan is 5-34-1 against the Gophers in his 10 seasons as the leader of the Bemidji State Women’s Hockey program.

The Beavers have four home series and two road series remaining on 2023-24 regular season.

Bemidji State is led by its top line of Taylor Nelson, Gabbie Smith and Hailey Armstrong.

The three are the top three leading scorers on the team and have combined for 16 of the team’s 27 goals (.593).

Nelson paces the team with 11 points after recording six goals and five assists through 22 games.

She is followed by freshman Hailey Armstrong who leads the team with nine goals and has totaled 10 points.

She is tied for 14th in the WCHA in goals and her five goals in conference play is tied for the 16th most.

Senior Gabbie Smith rounds out the top three scorers totaling nine points and leads the team with eight assists.

The Beavers are desperate for scoring however, and have not scored a goal in the last three games.

Bemidji State leads the nation with 381 blocked shots led by national leader freshman Riley Reeves with 59.

Reeves (4a), Deering (4a) and senior Khloe Lund (1g-3a) lead BSU’s blueline with four points each.

In net the Beavers utilize the tandem of junior Abbie Thompson and freshman Eva Filippova.

Thompson leads BSU with 14 appearances and 13 starts but Filippova has started five of the last seven games.

Filippova paces the team with a .913 save percentage and has recorded all three wins for the team.

She is coming off a weekend at Duluth where she turned aside 55-of-58 shots in 85 minutes against the seventh-ranked Bulldogs.

Filippova ranks 10th in the WCHA with a .913 save percentage and has stopped the fifth-most shots in the league.

Thompson leads the WCHA with 405 saves and has posted a .877 save percentage along with a 4.73 goals against average.

Hailing from Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, Filippova is the first Russian born student-athlete for the BSU Women’s Hockey team.

She is the first freshman goaltender to appear in 500 or more minutes in between the pipes since Lauren Bench (2017-18).

She boasts the best save percentage (.913) by a freshman at BSU since Brittni Mowat (.918) in 2013-14 (minimum 500 minutes played).

Filippova currently owns the third-best save percentage by a freshman goaltender at BSU trailing Beaver greats Brittni Mowat (.918) and Zuzana Tomcikova (.917).