Beavers travel to Sioux Falls for first time to challenge Vikings
BSU Men’s Hockey makes first-ever trip to Augustana
For the first time in program history, the (RV) Bemidji State University Men’s Hockey team will travel to Sioux Falls, S.D., and faces Augustana University at Midco Arena.
The Beavers (3-4-0, 2-2-0 CCHA) battle the Vikings (4-4-0, 1-1-0 CCHA) for the second time in program history and begin their first-ever Central Collegiate Hockey Association series Friday night at 7:07 p.m. Game two is slated for 6:07 p.m.
Bemidji State makes its first-ever trip to Sioux Falls to battle the Vikings at the new MidCo Arena, home of Vikings Hockey.
CCHA points will also be on the line for the first time between the two teams after meeting last season in Bemidji for a non-conference series.
The Beavers and Vikings split their series last season at Sanford Center with BSU earning a 5-0 victory in game one but AU responded with a 5-2 win in game two.
Fifth-year senior Eric Martin led the Beavers posting three points off a goal and two assists in last year’s series.
Adam Flammang (1g-1a), Jere Vaisanen (1g-1a) and Jackson Jutting (2a) each posted two points in the series.
The Beavers scored seven goals in last year’s series, all of which were scored by a different Beaver including junior Patrik Satosaari who scored his first collegiate goal Saturday night.
Senior Mattias Sholl started both games in the series making 27-of-31 saves including a 10-save shutout Friday night.
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 sixth consecutive week.
The Vikings are also unranked the USA Hockey/The Rink Live poll while receiving votes in the USCHO.com poll.
The Beavers are coming off a series split with then No. 16 Minnesota State University, Mankato at Sanford Center while the Vikings return home after a series split with University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.
Head coach Tom Serratore is approaching 400 career victories after collecting his 391st 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 391-364-99 in his 24 seasons as head coach of the Beavers and boasts a .516 career winning percentage.
The Beavers rank fifth in the CCHA averaging 2.29 goals for per game while they sit fourth in goals against (2.29).
The Vikings are fourth in goals for (2.38) and third in goals against (2.00).
The Vikings sit 20th in the PairWise (uscho.com) while the Beavers are tied for 39th.
The Beavers have had the tougher schedule to start based on past opposition win percentage ranking 29th (.481) in Division I while the Vikings are 38th (.450).
Bemidji State is led by Jere Vaisanen and Carter Randklev who have each scored four goals in seven games. The pair are tied for fourth in the CCHA.
The Beavers boast a balanced offense with their top three lines averaging over a point per game.
Tom Serratore’s top three lines have scored 12 of the Beavers 16 goals this season.
The Beavers’ blueline has scored three goals from the back end.
Fifth-year senior Austin Jouppi leads the team with four assists which is tied for the sixth in the CCHA.
Senior defenseman Will Magnuson leads the CCHA and is second in the nation with 24 blocked shots. He is also one of three defensemen for the Beavers to score a goal this season. He is coming off blocking a team-high 10 shots last weekend against Minnesota State.
Senior Mattias Sholl has seen action in the crease in all but 21 minutes for the Beavers this season. He is 2-4-0 to start the season with a 2.24 goals against average, .918 save percentage and was named the CCHA Preseason Goaltender of the Year. His 5,053 minutes in net for the Beavers is the ninth most in program history and recently made his 2,000th save.
Sholl recorded the sixth shutout of his career last weekend and already the second of the season. He is one of six goaltenders in Division I to record two shutouts so far this season. He is tied for seventh in the BSU Men’s Hockey program with six career shutouts.
On special teams, the Beavers are third in the CCHA with a power-play percentage of .167 after scoring three power-play goals in 18 attempts.
They are fifth in the league with a .824 penalty-kill percentage (14-of-17).
Bemidji State’s three wins this season have come when they score the first goal. They are 321-140-49 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 135 games played at the Division I level with fifth-year senior Jackson Jutting follows with 121. 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 87 career games played between the pipes. He is seventh in college hockey with 40 career wins.
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.
Serratore is in his 24th season at the helm of the Bemidji State Men’s Hockey program. He is 391-364-99 (.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.