Bemidji State welcomes No. 16 Mavericks to town for rivalry series
Beavers renew 50-year rivalry with Minnesota State this weekend at Sanford Center
A regional rivalry gets renewed this weekend at Sanford Center as the (RV) Bemidji State University Men’s Hockey team hosts No. 16 Minnesota State University, Mankato for a Central Collegiate Hockey Association series.
The Beavers (2-3-0, 1-1-0 CCHA) host the Mavericks (5-3-0, 0-0-0 CCHA) for a two-game, league series with CCHA points on the line. The Beavers and Mavericks begin their series Friday night at 7:07 p.m., followed by game two Saturday at 6:07 p.m.
Bemidji State renews one of its longest rivalries in the men’s hockey program this weekend by welcoming Minnesota State to Sanford Center.
2024 marks 50 years the Beavers and Mavericks have battled for bragging rights within the State of Hockey.
The Bemidji State and Minnesota State Men’s Hockey rivalry started Nov. 25, 1974 and the two teams have since played in 147 meetings.
The all-time series is split nearly down the middle with MSU holding a slight advantage at 68-63-16 (.517).
However, the Beavers have won the last three meetings between the two teams including sweeping the Mavericks on home ice in their last series.
The Beavers shutout the Mavericks in each game to clinch the MacNaughton Cup on home ice.
It was the first time in their 49-year history that the Beavers swept Minnesota State with back-to-back shutouts.
The home team has been favored in their series with Bemidji State boasting a 40-27-5 record when hosting the Mavericks but are just 22-40-11 when playing on the road.
The Beavers are returning home after opening CCHA play on the road last weekend at Ferris State University.
After falling 4-2 in the series opener, the Beavers responded by blanking the Bulldogs 3-0 in game two to salvage the series split.
Senior Mattias Sholl stopped 30-of-30 shots Saturday night to collect his first shutout of the season and fifth of the career. He is now tied for eighth for the most shutouts in program history.
Senior Jere Vaisanen scored three of the Beavers five goals over the weekend and was named the CCHA Forward of the Week for the first time this season.
Bemidji State is unranked in the latest USA Hockey/The Rink Live top-20 national poll but is still receiving votes in the USCHO.com top-20 poll for the fifth consecutive week.
Minnesota State comes to Bemidji as the 16th ranked team in both national polls.
The Beavers are 1-2-0 against ranked opponents so far this season.
Fifth-year senior captain Jackson Jutting leads the Beavers with eight career points (5g-3a) against the Mavericks.
The Savage, Minn., native with family ties to Minnesota State has come up clutch against the Mavericks scoring two game-winning goals and scored a career-high four points (2g-2a) in the Beavers MacNaughton Cup clinching victory over MSU last season.
Senior netminder Mattias Sholl has made nine starts against the Mavericks and is 4-5-0 with one shutout, a 2.59 goals against average and .914 save percentage.
Head coach Tom Serratore is 23-45-5 in 24 seasons coaching against Minnesota State.
Serratore is approaching 400 career victories after collecting his 390th career victory last Saturday.
He seeks to become the 31st head coach in Division I Men’s Hockey to reach the 400-win milestone and the 12th active head coach.
Serratore is 390-363-99 in his 24 seasons as head coach of the Beavers and boasts a .516 career winning percentage.
The Beavers have had a hot start to the season in terms of scoring and lead the CCHA averaging 2.80 goals per game.
After his three-goal weekend last series, Jere Vaisanen now leads the team with four goals and five points.
He is tied for second in the CCHA in goals and is second with a .80 goals per game average.
Vaisanen has recorded a point in four of the Beavers’ five games this season and has scored a goal in two consecutive games.
Despite not registering a point last weekend, graduate transfer Carter Randklev is second on the team with four points off three goals and one assist.
Fifth-year senior Austin Jouppi leads the team with three assists which is tied for the second most in the CCHA.
The line of sophomore Kasper Magnussen, Vaisanen and fifth-year senior Eric Martin has been the most productive line for head coach Tom Serratore and has scored five of the Beavers’ 14 goals.
Senior Mattias Sholl has seen action in the crease in all but 20 minutes for the Beavers this season.
He is 1-3-0 to start the season with a 2.75 goals against average, .899 save percentage and was named the CCHA Preseason Goaltender of the Year.
His 4,934:44 career time in net for the Beavers is the ninth most in program history and he ranks ninth in program history in career GAA (2.52) and save percentage (.906).
On special teams, the Beavers are second in the CCHA with a power-play percentage of .143 after scoring two power-play goals in 14 attempts.
They are fourth in the league with a .857 penalty-kill percentage (12-of-14) and are coming off a perfect 6-for-6 weekend at Ferris State.
Bemidji State’s two wins this season have come when they score the first goal. They are 320-140-49 when scoring first in the program’s DI era.
Bemidji State features one of the most experienced teams in the CCHA and its roster boasts over 1,400 games played between its 27 skaters.
Fifth-year senior Eric Martin leads the team with 133 games played at the Division I level with fifth-year senior Jackson Jutting follows with 119. 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 85 career games played between the pipes. He is sixth in college hockey with 39 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.
The Beavers are defending their second-ever MacNaughton Cup championship from last season finishing as regular season champions in the CCHA.
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 390-363-99 (.516) 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.