Dec. 5—BEMIDJI — With a Thanksgiving weekend road trip to Lindenwood on the schedule, the Bemidji State women’s hockey team was excited to take part in the yearly festivities together.
The Beavers boarded a plane for Maryland Heights, Missouri, gearing up for their penultimate nonconference series against the Lions.
“The airport was quiet. We had a great Thanksgiving meal on the way down,” head coach Amber Fryklund said. “It was a unique trip on the road with the holiday. We’re grateful for those experiences to travel together and go to different places and play different opponents.”
The pleasantries of the adverse series for BSU ended on Friday afternoon when the puck dropped for the series opener.
Lindenwood trounced Bemidji State 7-4 on Friday night. The Lions scored a late goal on Saturday to earn a 2-2 tie.
“It wasn’t our best weekend — disappointing results,” Fryklund said. “I don’t think it was our best weekend as a team on the ice. It’s just resetting this week and really focusing our preparation on this weekend.”
The near sweep dropped the Beavers to 4-10-2 this season and 2-1-1 in nonconference play. BSU has one more nonconference series remaining, a road trip to Merrimack Jan. 3-4 to kick off the new year.
In the meantime, Bemidji State has one more series before the holiday break. The Beavers welcome fifth-ranked Minnesota Duluth to the Sanford Center this weekend for their final games in 2025.
“They’re a good team,” junior forward Talya Hendrickson said. “They’re a very physical, strong and fast team. We have to play hard to pull out a win against them.”
It’s been a while since BSU knocked off UMD. Minnesota Duluth is riding a 17-game winning streak against Bemidji State, dating back to Jan. 22, 2021. The Bulldogs haven’t surrendered more than one goal to the Beavers since Jan. 14, 2022, the fourth win in the streak.
“They’re a fast, physical team,” Fryklund said. “They’re well-coached. They have a lot of players who can score and they’re good defensively. They have a really good goaltender. Our focus is in our preparation this week and how we can take advantage of our game to hopefully put pucks in the net and play well defensively.”
However, one could make the argument that these Beavers are more poised to pull off an upset than they’ve been in years past.
Bemidji State nabbed its first ranked win in three and a half years when
it beat No. 14 St. Thomas on Nov. 8.
They did it again
against 10th-ranked St. Cloud State on Nov. 22.
“I think after those two upsets, we have that motivation to beat more ranked teams,” Hendrickson said. “Coming to play every weekend, against teams ranked or not ranked, is something we want to do.”
The Beavers are also getting more scoring, which is something they’ve lacked in this losing streak against the Bulldogs.
Morgan Smith leads the Beavers in points with six goals and seven assists. Hailey Armstrong has nine goals and two assists in 16 games. She’s tied with Kate Johnson for second on the team in points. Johnson has two goals and nine assists. Isa Goettl and Izy Fairchild are close to reaching double-digit points.
“We want to play our best and focus on the controlables, and if we focus on the controlables, hopefully we get the outcome we want,” Fryklund said.
“Those two wins against ranked opponents are huge confidence boosts for our program. Every weekend’s different. Obviously last weekend, it wasn’t our best on the ice, but that’s the great thing about our game — every weekend is a new opportunity. We can use those (ranked) wins for confidence, and certainly taking those experiences into every weekend is our goal.”
Friday’s contest begins at 6:02 p.m. at the Sanford Center. Saturday’s game starts at 3:02 p.m.
