Jan. 24—BEMIDJI — Saturday’s Bemidji High School girls hockey game against St. Cloud was special for Emma Beise.
The 14-year-old was diagnosed with low-grade glioma, a cancerous brain tumor, in May 2025. She’s been battling it ever since, and is still uncertain what the future of her fight looks like.
At the fourth annual Hockey Fights Cancer celebration at the Bemidji Community Arena, which featured a BHS hockey doubleheader, Beise was honored by the girls team with a ceremonial puck drop, jersey and a purple-themed gift basket.
“I feel very empowered to just keep going,” Beise said. “It’s really nice that these girls all came together and just made me feel welcome while I was doing this.
“It just gives me a little bit more of hope.”
Her presence gave the Lumberjacks a boost, as they defeated St. Cloud 5-2 at the Bemidji Community Arena.
It took just 10 minutes for Bailey Rupp to make an impact in her first game back from the Under-18 Women’s World Championship. Rupp sniped goaltender Jordan Bovy blocker side for the game’s first goal in the first period.
It was the first of three goals, which included an empty netter.
“She’s truly an impact player,” head coach Mike Johnson said. “It was good to get that first one under her belt. … We really count on her to do that, and she stepped right in.”
BHS ran into a few speedbumps along the way, particularly in the second period. The Crush got on the board with a Josie Longnecker goal that slipped in BHS goaltender Lily Lauer’s legs. Two minutes later, junior Jayden Layne added another to take a 2-1 lead.
The Crush only had five shots in the first two periods, scoring on two of them.
“No goalie had any chance on either of those goals,” Johnson said. “We just had people out of position and a couple of strange puck bounces. Whenever you have someone tapping the puck into an open net, there was a breakdown or two before that.”
A few minutes before the second period ended, Rupp got one past Bovy to tie the game at two entering the third period. After back-and-forth chances for both teams to take the lead, Naomi Johnson scored on an impressive goal on a breakaway to retake the lead, 3-2, while shorthanded.
“In a shorthand situation like that, she’s got a unique set of skills,” Johnson said. “She’s got good size, fantastic speed. She’s starting to cut hard to the net like she did there. Dropped the goalie down, opened up the top shelf. She absolutely buried that shot.
“We see those kinds of things in practice. It was nice that she was able to put all those pieces together to create that goal really on her own.”
Taylor Bjerke added another one before Rupp scored the empty-net dagger, clinching the 5-2 win for the Jacks (16-5).
Beise was invited into the locker room before the game.
“We wanted to go out there and win that game for her,” Johnson said. “We struggled a little bit, but she’s been through a lot of struggles, too; she can understand that sometimes that happens. It was a special opportunity for her to be there and for us to be there to honor her.”
Bemidji 5, St. Cloud 2
STC 0 2 0 — 2
BHS 1 1 3 — 5
First period — BHS GOAL: Rupp (Knott, Berg) PPG, 10:24.
Second period — STC GOAL: Longdecker (Ruska) 6:46; STC GOAL: Layne (Bell) 8:47; BHS GOAL: Rupp (Unassisted) 12:18.
Third period — BHS GOAL: Johnson (Knott) 10:22; BHS GOAL: Bjerke (Malkowski, Berg) 13:00; BHS GOAL: Rupp (Johnson) ENG, 16:30.
Saves: Lauer (BHS) 10; Bovy (STC) 26.
