Jan. 9—BEMIDJI — It’s been 33 days since the Bemidji State men’s hockey team has played in a game that counts.
Save for an exhibition on Jan. 2 — a 3-3 tie against the University of Minnesota at the Sanford Center — the Beavers have been off since Dec. 7. BSU didn’t get its first bye week until the following weekend, leading to an extended holiday break.
It gave head coach Tom Serratore a chance to reflect on where Bemidji State stands after the first semester.
“There was a lot of unknowns with this team,” Serratore said. “We had 10 new guys and a lot of veterans. I didn’t know what was going to happen. Early on, it was a struggle. Because, again, we were just throwing darts at the wall. When you throw darts, you don’t know what’s going to happen. You’re going to hit once and a while and you’re going to miss. So we struggled a little bit early, but it’s nobody’s fault.”
After sweeping Alaska Anchorage on the road to open the season on Oct. 3-4, the Beavers, as Serratore put it, struggled against NCHC opponents.
They were swept in home-and-home series against St. Cloud State and Minnesota Duluth the following weekends before turning to CCHA play.
“You have a new team that’s trying to gel and mesh,” Serratore said. “You have a culture you want to maintain, which isn’t easy when you have 10 new guys, and a lot of those guys are older. But those guys had good buy-in, too, and we started playing well.”
BSU found more rhythm in its game when CCHA play commenced.
It beat Augustana 1-0 in overtime on Oct. 24, then picked up its first CCHA regulation win the following night by a score of 3-2. It began a 10-game point streak in league play.
“We have good depth to our game,” Serratore said. “We’re generating offense and we’re not giving up a lot of goals. That’s a pretty good aspect right there. There are certain aspects of our game that have gotten better throughout the first half. Early on, we weren’t good on the faceoff dots. In the last month or so, we’ve been pretty strong on the dots. There’s just a lot of things that went well and you hope you can maintain it.”
Bemidji State returned to nonconference play Thanksgiving weekend, falling to No. 4 North Dakota 5-3 at home and 2-1 in overtime on the road. The Beavers closed out the first half with a 3-1 loss against Augustana on the road before nabbing a 4-4 tie and a shootout win.
Bemidji State has played in eight overtime periods through its first 20 games.
Currently, BSU sits in third place in the CCHA standings, but has games in hand for the first time this season. Bemidji State (9-8-3, 7-2-3 CCHA, 25 points) is the top CCHA team by points percentage at .694, with St. Thomas (11-7-7, 8-3-2 CCHA, 27 points) and Minnesota State (12-5-5, 8-3-3 CCHA, 28 points) trailing closely behind.
The Mavericks, Tommies and Beavers make up the top three in the league standings, albeit not separated by much from the next three teams. Augustana (12-6-34, 6-4-3, 24 points), Michigan Tech (12-8-2, 7-3-2 CCHA, 22 points) and Bowling Green (9-5-4, 6-3-3 CCHA, 21 points) are within seven points or fewer of Minnesota State at the top, with Lake Superior State (8-13-1, 5-9-0 CCHA, 17 points) making a charge to enter the mix.
In a league that prides itself on parity, coaches are getting it and then some.
“I knew that what’s going on right now was going to happen,” Serratore said. “I didn’t think it’d be six teams, but three or four. From top to bottom, the parity in this league is tight. You kind of know what teams are losing and gaining, and there are always x-factors — things that have no rhyme or reason that you can’t put a finger on. But we all kind of knew this thing’s going to be tight. Whoever’s going to win it, there’s going to be a lot of breaks.”
While it’s a long shot for Bemidji State to work its way back into an at-large position in the NPI rankings (the NPI replaced the pairwise system), the Beavers have as good a chance as any to create some separation among the six contending teams.
It starts with a home series against Michigan Tech this weekend at the Sanford Center before they head to St. Paul for their first series against St. Thomas next weekend. BSU then plays two-game sets against Bowling Green, Northern Michigan, Ferris State, Minnesota State and St. Thomas to close the regular season.
MTU poses as tough a test as any from the outset. The Huskies have already played four games since returning from holiday break. They finished as the runner-up in the Great Lakes Invitational before a lackluster third-place showing at the Desert Hockey Classic Tournament in Tempe, Arizona.
Meanwhile, the Beavers have just one exhibition game under their belt in the last month and change, but they also enter the second half healthy.
“It was a perfect exhibition game because it was perfect pace,” Serratore said. “That’s all I wanted to do — have a good, competitive game, and it obviously was. Nothing’s going to put us in position. (Michigan Tech has) already played four games. At least we got that exhibition game in there.”
This weekend is also the first of three Sanford Center Showcases. The Bemidji High School boys hockey team plays a 3 p.m. game against East Grand Forks on Friday before a 2 p.m. game against Rock Ridge on Saturday, each at the Sanford Center ahead of the BSU games.
Next week, BHS girls hockey will play in a similar event that coincides with BSU women’s hockey. Feb. 12-14, the BHS and BSU basketball programs will compete in the third Sanford Center Showcase, among a bevy of area teams.
“This is all 218 Sports, and they’ve done a great job marketing this,” Serratore said. “They were the brains behind this, and I think it’s awesome. These are the things you have to do to market in small towns. I’m excited about it. Hopefully, this becomes a yearly game and a yearly event for the hockey fanbase in northern Minnesota and Bemidji.”
