Beavers make final road trip of regular season with trip to (RV) Minnesota State

BSU Women’s Hockey travels to Minnesota State eyeing WCHA seeding improvement

The Bemidji State University Women’s Hockey plays its final road series of the 2023-24 regular season this weekend and travels to Mankato, Minn., to take on (RV) Minnesota State University, Mankato.

The Beavers (4-24-2, 3-20-1 WCHA) have the opportunity to leap-frog the Mavericks (10-21-0, 4-20-0 WCHA) in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association standings who sit sixth entering the weekend. The two-game league series begins Friday, Feb. 16 at 6:01 p.m. from Mayo Clinic HSEC with game two Saturday at 3:01 p.m.

Each game will be streamed online at B1G+ with play-by-play commentary MSU Athletics. A Beaver Radio Network broadcast with Rob Aitken on the call can also be found on your radio dial at 94.3FM or online at www.beaverradionetwork.com.

Just two series remains in the 2023-24 women’s hockey regular season.

Bemidji State sits seventh in the WCHA standings with 10 league points and has the opportunity to leap frog the Mavericks for sixth with five or more points this weekend.

Minnesota State holds sixth in the standings with 13 points and a 4-20-0 conference record.

The Beavers are guaranteed to finish in with either a sixth, seventh, or eighth seed in the WCHA Tournament ensuring a road trip for the quarterfinal round on March 1-3.

University of St. Thomas is also battling for better playoff seeding and trails the Beavers by just two points for eighth in the standings.

The Beavers enter the weekend with a 4-24-2 record and are 3-20-1 in league play.

BSU is 1-13-0 on the road this season.

The Beavers hope to snap a four-game losing skid at Minnesota State this weekend.

Bemidji State is 47-41-15 all-time against the Mavericks and are 23-23-5 when playing MSU in Mankato.

Bemidji State and Minnesota State last met earlier this season on Nov. 17-18 with each team winning in overtime.

The Beavers took game one against the Mavericks after Khloe Lund scored the game-winning overtime goal but MSU responded with its own overtime goal in game two to split the series.

Lund finished that series with three points with a goal and two assists while freshman Hailey Armstrong scored twice.

The pair were named the WCHA Defender and Rookie of the Week for their efforts.

Senior Taylor Nelson leads the team with four career points (2g-2a) versus the Mavericks while Genevieve Hendrickson, Lund and Gabbie Smith each follow with three.

Freshman Eva Filippova earned the victory in their last series and posted a .923 save percentage stopping 24-of-26 shots.

Head coach Jim Scanlan is 20-18-3 when coaching against the Mavericks in his 10 seasons.

Bemidji State is led by Taylor Nelson who has posted 12 points off a career-high seven goals and five assists. She is one point away from tying a career-high of 13 points set during the 2021-22 season.

She is followed by senior Gabbie Smith who has a career-high 11 points off a goal and 10 assists. She leads the team in assists and faceoff wins with 282.

Armstrong is third on the team with 10 points but leads the Beavers with nine goals, the most by a BSU freshman since Tara Hiscock also scored nine goals in the 2004-05 season.

The three have combined to score 17 of the team’s 36 goals (.472).

The Beavers’ second line of Kayla Santl, Shelby Breiland and Alyssa Watkins has found its scoring touch of as of late and has scored five of the last eight Beaver goals.

Santl drives the line scoring a career-high eight points off six goals and two assists Breiland (1g-4a) and Watkins (2g-1a) follow with five and three points, respectively.

Senior Khloe Lund leads the Beavers’ blueline with six points off two goals and four assists, while junior Makenna Deering (1g-4a) and freshman Riley Reeves (5a) follow with five.

Bemidji State leads the nation with 537 blocked shots, led by national leader Riley Reeves (80). Lund follows with 74 blocked shots and is third in the country while Deering has totaled 61 to tie for ninth.

2023-24 is the 26th season of Bemidji State Women’s Hockey. In 26 seasons, the Beavers are 274-536-79 (.356).