Beavers resume WCHA play with road trip to No. 2 Ohio State

BSU Women’s Hockey faces No. 2 Ohio State for first WCHA series of 2025

The Bemidji State University Women’s Hockey team returns to Western Collegiate Hockey Association action this weekend and travels to Columbus, Ohio to face No. 2 Ohio State University, Jan. 10-11.

The Beavers (4-16-1, 2-12-0 WCHA) face the Buckeyes (13-5-3, 8-5-3 WCHA) for their second series of the 2024-25 season. Both games in the Friday-Saturday series begins at 2:00 p.m. CST.

Each game will be streamed online on B1G+ with play-by-play provided by OSU Athletics. A Beaver Radio Network broadcast will not be available this weekend.

The Beavers start the second half of the 2024-25 season facing No. 2 Ohio State.

Bemidji State plays for its first league points since Dec. 13-14.

The Beavers are coming off a successful weekend at the East/West Showcase at Ridder Arena narrowly falling to No. 11/12 Penn State University but defeated Brown University in game two.

The Beavers overcame a three-goal deficit in the second period to rally back and defeat the Bears 5-4 Saturday, Jan. 4 for the largest comeback in program history.

BSU played three games over four days last week after also playing in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Museum Face-Off Classic where it narrowly fell to No. 3 Minnesota 4-1 despite holding a 1-1 tie with the Gophers after the first 40 minutes.

Bemidji State sees Ohio State for the second time this season after meeting for the first time in the 2024-25 season opener Sept. 27-28 in Bemidji.

The then No. 5 Buckeyes swept the Beavers at Sanford Center outscoring the Beavers 11-2 in the series.

Ohio State enters the weekend’s action as the No. 2 ranked team in both the USA Hockey/The Rink Live and USCHO.com national polls and are coming off a 0-1-1 series against No. 1 Wisconsin.

Bemidji State continues to be without head coach Amber Fryklund while she is away with Team USA serving as an Assistant Coach at the IIHF U18 Women’s World Championships in Vantaa, Finland.

Team USA went a perfect 3-0 during the preliminary rounds and faces Slovakia in the quarterfinals Thursday, Jan. 9.

Bemidji State is 4-16-1 on the season and 2-12-0 in conference play.

The Beavers snapped a six-game losing streak last Saturday.

The Beavers are looking to snap a 15-game losing streak to the Buckeyes this weekend and have not defeated Ohio State since Feb. 11, 2022.

The Beavers have not won in Columbus since Feb. 8, 2019 and are on a 14-game winless streak (0-13-1) on the road against the Buckeyes.

Ohio State is 64-29-13 all-time against the Beavers including a 36-12-6 record when hosting BSU.

In their first series of the 2024-25 season, Hailey Armstrong and Isa Goettl scored the lone goals for the Beavers while freshman goaltender Kaitlin Groess shined in her collegiate debut stopping 52-of-55 shots in game two.

The Beavers are led by freshman Morgan Smith who has been on a hot streak over the last four games.

Smith leads the team with 13 points (7g-6a) and has eight points (5g-3a) over the last four games.

Smith posted back-to-pack multi-point efforts at the East/West Showcase last weekend registering five points (2g-3a) at the tournament.

She was named the WCHA Rookie of the Week for the second consecutive week this week as well as the league’s Rookie of the Month for December.

She is followed by sophomore Hailey Armstrong and redshirt freshman Isa Goettl who have each totaled 12 points.

Armstrong leads the team with eight goals and is coming off a two-goal, three-point effort against Brown (Jan. 4).

Armstrong has five points (2g-3a) over the last four games.

Goettl is tied for the team lead with sophomore Kate Johnson who have each totaled seven assists.

Goettl has also been hot as of late posting five points (2g-3a) over the last four games while Johnson leads the team with a three-game point streak (3a).

All four of the Beavers four leading scorers are underclassmen while eight of their top 10 are underclassmen.

Bemidji State’s power play has been hot as well and over the last four games, BSU is 7-for-15 (.467) while on the advantage.

Smith has driven the Beavers’ power play and leads the team and is tied for second in the WCHA with five power play goals.

Smith’s five power-play goals this season is tied for the 10th most in a single season in program history and trails program record holder Sadie Lundquist who scored eight in 2011-12.

Smith leads the Beavers with seven points while on the power play (5g-2a) while Goettl follows with five (2g-3a).

The Beavers’ power play has moved up to fourth in the WCHA converting on .204-percent (10-of-49) of their chances. They also rank 15th in the nation in power-play percentage.

Bemidji State continues to be the top team in the WCHA at blocking shots leading the league and sixth in the nation with 336 blocks.