Beavers make first WCHA road trip to face No. 1 Badgers

BSU Women’s Hockey looks to carry momentum into matchup with No. 1 Wisconsin

The Bemidji State University Women’s Hockey team resumes Western Collegiate Hockey Association play and travels for its first WCHA road series to No. 1 University of Wisconsin this weekend.

The Beavers (1-6-1, 0-4-0 WCHA) travel to Madison, Wis., to face the top-ranked Badgers (8-0-0, 4-0-0 WCHA) at LaBahn Arena for a Thursday-Friday series. The Beavers face-off with the Badgers for a rare Thursday series opener October 24 with puck drop at 7:00 p.m. CT. Game two will also begin at 7:00 p.m. CT Friday night.

Bemidji State hits the road for its first WCHA road series of the season looking to carry momentum from a successful weekend against Lindenwood University.

The Beavers earned their first win of the season with a 6-3 victory in their series opener with the Lions Oct. 18.

It was the Beavers’ first win since Jan. 27, 2024 or 265 days.

First-year head coach Amber Fryklund earned her first collegiate victory and is the program’s career points leader (122).

The Beavers scored a season-high six goals in the victory and the most goals since also scoring six against Lindenwood on Sept. 24, 2022.

BSU then skated to a 3-3 tie Saturday afternoon with the Lions.

The nine-goal weekend for the Beavers was the most scored in a weekend series since Jan. 4-5, 2019 where the Beavers scored nine goals in their non-conference series with Union College.

Sophomore forward Hailey Armstrong powered the Beavers’ offensive outburst by netting her first career hat trick on Friday night while also recording a program record 14 shots on goal in the game.

She finished with 18 shots over the weekend, registered three points (3g) and was a +3 rating on the ice while earning the WCHA Forward of the Week for the first time in her career.

She is the first WCHA weekly award winner of the season for the Beavers and the first since Reece Hunt (2021-22) to be named the league’s forward of the week.

Bemidji State will have the tough test of upsetting the No. 1 ranked team on the road this weekend facing the top-ranked Badgers.

Wisconsin is ranked No. 1 in both the USA Hockey/The Rink Live and USCHO.com top-15 national polls and is the unanimous selection in each poll.

The Badgers have started their season winning their first eight games and are coming off a weekend sweep of University of Minnesota on the road at Ridder Arena.

Bemidji State is 7-92-5 all-time against the Badgers and 4-46-2 when facing Wisconsin at LaBahn Arena.

The Badgers are currently on a 16-game unbeaten streak versus the Beavers going 15-0-1 over the last 16 games.

Bemidji State’s last win over the Badgers was Jan. 11, 2020 in Bemidji and its last win on the road was Jan. 16, 2015.

Bemidji State is led by Armstrong and redshirt freshman Isa Goettl who have each recorded five points through the first eight games.

Armstrong paces the team with four goals while Goettl has tallied three goals and two assists.

Freshman Morgan Smith leads the team with three assists and has added a goal for four points.

Sophomore Riley Reeves leads the Beavers’ blueline also totaling four points off two goals and two assists. She also leads the team with 28 blocks in the defensive zone which is tops in the WCHA and third in DI Women’s Hockey.

Bemidji State’s line of Goettl, Smith and senior captain Alyssa Watkins has been its most productive. The trio have combined to score six of the team’s 14 goals (43%).

That line holds a combined +5 rating on the ice this season to lead the team.

Bemidji State’s blueline group is one of the best in collegiate women’s hockey when it comes to blocking shots.

The Beavers have laid out to block 129 opponent shots this season, the most in the WCHA and fourth-most in the nation.

The Beavers rank 1-2-3 in the WCHA in blocked shots with Reeves leading the way followed by senior Kendra Fortin and sophomore Olivia Dronen who each have 17.

Freshman Kaitlin Groess has taken the reigns of the Beavers’ crease and has made five starts posting a 2.02 goals against average and .933 save percentage.

She backstopped the Beavers to their first win last weekend and ranks third in the WCHA in saves (140) and in save percentage (.933).

Among goaltenders in DI with 200 or minutes played this season, she is 11th in the nation in save percentage.

Bemidji State’s penalty kill has made improvements this season and ranks fifth in the WCHA with a penalty-kill percentage of .818 (18-of-22). The Beavers have killed off their last three opponent power plays.

In her first season as head coach, Fryklund has welcomed back 15 returners from the 2023-24 season while adding 12 newcomers to the squad.

The Beavers will have one graduate and six seniors lead the team followed by three juniors, eight sophomores, and nine freshmen.

The Beavers’ roster consists of 15 forwards, eight defensemen and four goaltenders.

Senior Alyssa Watkins was voted by her peers to captain the team during the season and is the 40th team captain in the program’s history. She is joined by senior Genevieve Hendrickson and junior Mya Headrick who will serve as alternate captains.

Eight freshmen join the program for their first season in NCAA Division I women’s hockey. The group consists of five forwards, one defenseman and two goaltenders.

The Beavers’ roster consists of 17 Minnesotan’s, 19 from the U.S., five from Canada, and three from Europe.

2024-25 is the 27th season in Bemidji State Women’s Hockey history and the program is 276-548-81 (.351) in 899 games played.