(RV) Beavers renew rivalry with No. 15/16 Huskies with home-and-home series
BSU Men’s Hockey makes Sanford Center debut after road trip to St. Cloud
The (RV) Bemidji State University Men’s Hockey team looks to build momentum after a season-opening victory last weekend at No. 18 University of Minnesota Duluth. The Beavers battle No. 15/16 St. Cloud State University for a home-and-home series Friday and Saturday.
The Beavers (1-0-0) and Huskies (1-0-0) do battle for a non-conference series beginning Friday, Oct. 11 at Herb Brooks National Hockey Center in St. Cloud, Minn. The Beavers then return home Saturday night for their home opener at Sanford Center. Puck drop for game one is at 7:30 while Saturday begins at 6:07 p.m.
Bemidji State begins week two of the Division I men’s hockey season riding the high of a season-opening overtime victory at No. 18 Minnesota Duluth.
The Beavers defeated the Bulldogs 4-3 in overtime for their first win in Duluth since 2016 and ended a seven-game winless streak versus UMD.
The season-opening victory also marked the first time since 2018-19 that Beavers started the season with a victory.
BSU opened the season on the road for the first time since 2015-16 and Friday will mark the first time since 2013-14 that the Beavers’ first two games of the season were on the road.
Bemidji State traded blows with the ranked Bulldogs but never trailed in the game. Fifth-year senior and 2024-25 captain Jackson Jutting scored 3:47 in the overtime frame to lead the Beavers to victory.
Four different goal scorers scored for Bemidji State while nine skaters recorded a point.
Senior Mattias Sholl stopped 26-of-28 shots in nearly 50 minutes of work between the pipes but left the game midway through the third period due to injury.
He was replaced by sophomore Raythan Robbins who shined off the bench turning aside 11-of-12 shots including five during overtime to capture his first collegiate victory. He was named the Central Collegiate Goaltender of the Week for the first time for his performance.
Bemidji State enters week two receiving votes in both the USA Hockey/The Rink Live and USCHO.com top-20 national polls for the second consecutive week.
The Beavers face their second consecutive nationally ranked opponent as the Huskies enter the weekend ranked No. 15 in the USA Hockey/The Rink Live poll and No. 16 in the USCHO.com poll.
Bemidji State is 46-53-8 in its 69-year history versus the Huskies.
Ice has favored the home team in the series with the Beavers boasting a 27-22-3 record at home against St. Cloud State but are just 19-28-5 when playing in St. Cloud.
The Huskies are on a three-game winning streak versus the Beavers after earning a series sweep last season in late December. SCSU bested the Beavers with two 6-1 victories last year.
BSU is 1-4-0 against SCSU over the last five games, 1-7-2 over their last 10 and 2-10-3 over their last 15.
Bemidji State’s last victory against St. Cloud State came on Oct. 28, 2022 at home and its last win on the road was Dec. 3, 2011 (seven games).
Fifth-year senior Jackson Jutting leads the team with eight career games against St. Cloud State while senior Jere Vaisanen paces the team with five career points (2g-3a) in six games versus the Huskies.
Senior goaltender Mattias Sholl is the only BSU goaltender to have faced the Huskies and is 1-3-0 in four starts with a 4.25 goals against average and .869 save percentage.
Head coach Tom Serratore is 5-23-4 coaching against the Huskies in his 24 seasons as bench boss of the Beavers.
Bemidji State features one of the most experienced teams in the CCHA and its roster boasts over 1,300 games played between its 27 skaters.
Fifth-year senior Eric Martin leads the team with 129 games played at the Division I level with fifth-year senior Jackson Jutting follows with 115. Five skaters on BSU’s roster have appeared in more than 100 games in Division I hockey.
Senior Mattias Sholl is one of the most experienced goaltenders in all of college hockey and ranks eighth nationally with 81 career games played between the pipes. He is sixth in college hockey with 38 career wins and is 10th with a career goals against average of 2.48.
Serratore boasts that the Beavers are one of the deepest teams in the league with all four lines and three defensive pairings contributing to the success of the team. That showed Saturday as all four forward lines scored a goal in Saturday’s victory over Minnesota Duluth.
The Beavers are defending their second-ever MacNaughton Cup championship from last season finishing as regular season champions in the CCHA.
The Beavers advanced all they way to the CCHA Playoff Championship game which was held at Sanford Center but fell to Michigan Technological University, 3-1.
The Beavers return 18 skaters from that championship team and head coach Tom Serratore has added 10 newcomers to the squad including three transfers.
Bemidji State returns six of its top 10 scorers from last season but will need to replace the production of departures Lleyton Roed, Kyle Looft, Eric Pohlkamp and Carter Jones.
Graduate Eric Martin returns for his fifth season with the Beavers and is BSU’s top scoring returnee after he posted a career-high 26 points off eight goals and 18 assists.
Also returning for his fifth-year, graduate Jackson Jutting eyes a big season for the Beavers after posting 22 points (10g-12) in 27 games last year.
Jutting was voted the team’s captain by his peers during the summer and will dawn the “C” while Martin, Austin Jouppi and Jere Vaisanen will each serve as alternates.
Bemidji State’s top returning goal scorer is Jutting while junior Adam Flammang and Vaisanen follow with nine.
The Beavers return 71 goals from last year which is 61-percent of the teams goals (117).
Carter Randklev, A.J. Macauly and Reilly Funk join the Beavers with past collegiate experience after Randklev played four seasons at Niagara, Macauly played two seasons at Alaska-Fairbanks and Funk played three seasons at Northern Michigan.
Randklev is the most experienced of the group appearing in 110 career games and posted 68 career points (33g-35) in four seasons with the Purple Eagles.
Martin is the most experience Beaver in terms of games played and has appeared in 128 career games totaling 65 points off 17 goals and 48 assists.
The Beavers boast their experience this season and have four graduates, five seniors, and seven juniors on the squad.
The Beavers were picked to finish second in the CCHA Preseason Coaches’ Poll while senior goaltender Mattias Sholl was the unanimous CCHA Preseason Goaltender of the Year.
Sholl returns for his senior campaign boasting a 38-34-7 career record with a 2.48 goals against average, .907 save percentage and four shutouts. He is seventh all-time at BSU in career goals against average and ninth in career save percentage.
Serratore is in his 24th season at the helm of the Bemidji State Men’s Hockey program. He is 388-360-99 (.517) in his coaching career.
Since taking over the Bemidji State Men’s Hockey program in 2001, Serratore’s teams have achieved eight regular-season conference championships, three CHA tournament titles, five NCAA Tournament appearances, one NCAA Frozen Four appearance (2009) and he is an eight-time conference Coach of the Year including most recently in 2024.
The 2024-25 Beaver roster consists of 28 student-athletes with four graduates, five seniors, seven juniors, five sophomores and seven freshmen.
The team consists of 9 Minnesotans, 25 from North America including nine Canadians and three from Europe.
By average, the Beavers are one of the smallest in Division I. They are tied for third in DI for the smallest by height averaging 5’11.6″ and the smallest by weight averaging 178.9 pounds.