Beavers return to the road for lone regular season matchup against Wildcats
BSU Men’s Hockey travels to Marquette, Mich., to face Northern Michigan for crucial league points

Just four series remains in the 2023-24 regular season for the Bemidji State University Men’s Hockey team and the Beavers travel this weekend for their second to last road series of the regular season.

The Beavers (10-15-1, 8-7-1 CCHA) travel to Marquette, Mich., for their first and only series with the Wildcats (9-13-4, 7-9-2 CCHA) in the 2023-24 regular season. The series is set to begin Friday, Feb. 9 at 6:07 p.m. CT from the Berry Events Center and game two will follow Saturday at 5:07 p.m. CT

Bemidji State hits the road for its first of two remaining road trips left in the 2023-24 regular season.

The Beavers face the Wildcats for the first time this season and first since Northern Michigan ended the Beavers 2022-23 season with a sweep in the first round of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association Playoffs.

Just 24 points remain for the Beavers to improve upon their placement in the CCHA standings.

Bemidji State sits fourth in the league standings with 27 points trailing conference leader University of St. Thomas by seven points.

Just 10 points separates first place and seventh place in the standings ensuring an entertaining race for the MacNaughton Cup.

Bemidji State has two games in hand against St. Thomas, second-place Minnesota State University, Mankato, fifth-place Michigan Tech and sixth-place Northern Michigan. The Beavers have three games in hand against third place Lake Superior State.

The Beavers will try to hinder the Wildcats from improving upon their league standings as BSU holds just a two-point advantage over the sixth-place Wildcats.

Bemidji State will attempt to push for its second MacNaughton Cup title as the league’s regular season champion after winning the trophy during the 2016-17 season.

The top four teams in the standings at the end of the regular season earn home-ice advantage for the CCHA Quarterfinal round in the best-of-three series.

Bemidji State last had home-ice advantage in the opening round during the 2021-22 season defeating Bowling Green State University in the three-game set. The Beavers then advanced to the CCHA Championship falling to Minnesota State in overtime.

Bemidji State and Northern Michigan’s rivalry dates back to the 2009-10 season and the Beavers hold the series record at 20-13-6 but have lost the last three games in the series.

The Beavers are 11-5-2 when playing at Berry Events Center in Marquette but fell in both games of their CCHA Quarterfinals at the arena last year.

Bemidji State’s last win over the Wildcats was on Jan. 20, 2023 (4-0) and last swept NMU on Oct. 22-23, 2021 in Marquette.

Head coach Tom Serratore is the lone Beaver coach to coach against the Wildcats and is 20-13-6 in his 23-year career.

Fifth-year senior Carter Jones and sophomore Lleyton Roed each pace the team with four career points against the Wildcats each scoring a goal and three assists.

Junior Mattias Sholl leads the team with a 4-5-0 record in between the pipes against NMU and has posted a 2.25 goals against average and .904 save percentage in nine appearances.

The Beavers are coming off a non-conference series with new league member Augustana University at Sanford Center.

BSU shutout the Vikings 5-0 in game one for its second shutout of the season but fell 5-2 in game two.

Junior goaltender Mattias Sholl collected just his second collegiate shutout after stopping all 10 shots he faced.

Bemidji State began February with a series split. Historically the Beavers are 78-71-24 (.521) in its Division I history during the month prior to postseason play.

Academic award winners were announced by the CCHA this week with 18 Beavers named CCHA All-Academic and 14 with CCHA Scholar-Athlete distinction.

Bemidji State has battled injuries throughout the season yet sit in home-ice positioning for the CCHA playoffs. The Beavers have lost 62 man-games due to injuries this season.

The Beavers seem to be on the mend as they saw the return of senior Jackson Jutting and freshman Liam Engström last weekend who missed the last 11 and nine games, respectively, due to injury.

Head coach Tom Serratore has had to juggle his lines throughout the season because of injuries and has totaled 48 different line combinations and 14 different defensive pairings.

Bemidji State remains out of the USAToday/The Rink Live and USCHO.com top-20 national polls with the Wildcats also absent from each poll.

Bemidji State is fourth in the CCHA in goals scored per game averaging 2.77 while ranking seventh in goals against (3.46).

In conference only games, the Beavers are the third highest scoring team averaging 3.19 goals in league play.

The Beavers are sixth in the conference in power-play percentage at .158 (16-101). They are coming off a 1-for-5 weekend against Augustana.

The Beavers’ penalty kill is fifth in the CCHA at .765 (65-85) and are coming off a 6-for-6 series against the Vikings.

BSU’s penalty kill last allowed a power-goal on Jan. 20, 2024 at Michigan Tech where the Huskies scored a 6-on-4 extra attacker, power-play goal with 4.9 seconds remaining to send the game into overtime.

The Beavers have successfully killed off their last six opponent’s power plays.

BSU continues to pace the CCHA averaging just 7:48 penalty minutes per game. That average is second lowest in Division I.

Bemidji State blocks the second-most shots in the league totaling 386 on the season led by junior Tony Follmer who is second with 54 despite missing the last two games.

Bemidji State is led by sophomore Lleyton Roed who has totaled 25 points (13g-12a) in 26 games. The Hobey Baker Memorial Award nominee is t-fourth in the CCHA in points and t-third in goals. His three game-winning goals are second in the league.

Roed has scored a goal in three of the last five games (4g) including two in the past three.

Roed has been centered by senior Eric Martin over the last two games and 10 games this season. Martin has a five-game point streak heading into the weekend totaling six points (2g-4a) over the last five games.

Martin is third on the team with 18 points (4g-14a) in 26 games and is t-sixth in the CCHA in assists.

Martin’s five-game point streak is the longest by a Beaver this season and the longest of his career.

Sophomore Adam Flammang follows Martin with a three-game point streak and has a goal and two assists over the last three games.

24 of the team’s 25 skaters have recorded a point this season with 22-of-25 scoring a goal including sophomore Patrik Satosaari who scored his first collegiate goal last weekend.

41 of the Beavers’ 72 goals have been scored by underclassmen (56.9%) this season including four-of-seven last weekend.

Bemidji State is 8-3-1 when scoring first this season but just 2-12-0 when the opponent scores first.

The Beavers are 5-8-0 on Friday’s and 4-6-1 on Saturday’s this season.

Bemidji State is 9-4-0 when scoring at least three goals but just 1-9-1 when scoring two or fewer.

14-of-15 of the Beavers’ losses this season have come when they allow three or more goals.

2023-24 is the 68th season of Bemidji State Men’s Hockey and 25th in Division I. The Beavers are 1,181-699-151 (.620) in 67 seasons and 395-405-103 (.496) in Division I.