Feb. 5—BEMIDJI — Luke Roelofs needed a reminder of what a win felt like.
The Bemidji State men’s hockey team broke out of its seven-game losing streak last Saturday with a 7-1 win over Northern Michigan at the Berry Events Center in Marquette, Mich.
Roelofs, a sophomore defenseman, exhaled.
“You almost forgot the feeling a little bit,” he said. “It had been a while since we sang that song and listened to some good music on the speakers and had a good bus ride back home. It was a special feeling. Sharing wins with these guys is special. I love all of those guys like brothers.”
The Beavers celebrated like they’d won on Dec. 7. They tied Augustana 4-4 on the road, thanks to a 6-on-5 goal from Oliver Peer in the waning minutes.
Before that, BSU’s last win came on Nov. 22, a 6-2 triumph over NMU at the Sanford Center before an 11-game winless streak. It was a slide that sent them firmly into the bottom half of the CCHA standings.
“It can get a little repetitive. You almost run out of words to say,” Roelofs said. “It’s just sticking to our game. We all know in that room that we have the group to do it. As long as we all stick to our game and stay connected, we can be a dangerous team with playoffs coming up here. It’s good to be clicking at this time of the year. Hopefully, we can take a lot away from Saturday’s game.”
Bemidji State is currently in sixth place in the CCHA with a league record of 8-9-3 (10-15-3 overall). It’s nine points out of the last home-ice position, and Bowling Green — currently in fifth place — has two games in hand over BSU.
However, the Beavers’ positioning in the CCHA standings has come secondary in recent weeks. While on their skid, Roelofs often thought of the eight seniors who were seeing their final collegiate seasons head down an unceremonious path.
“You think about them. You see them after losses,” Roelofs said. “Obviously, everybody is down after losses, but you can see it on the seniors’ faces. They’ve been in a position where they’ve won a MacNaughton Cup. They’ve seen the high side of things. They’ve also been on the low side of things. It’s just trying to play for them and trying to do our best to put ourselves in a good spot.”
This weekend’s series against Ferris State could serve two purposes for Bemidji State at once. Not only could a six-point sweep over the CCHA’s last-place team give BSU a puncher’s chance at sneaking into fourth place, but it could also be the start of garnering real traction heading into the Mason Cup playoffs in March.
“It’s crazy, I’ve been so focused on Bemidji State, and we’ve all been so focused on trying to get back on track and worried about what we’re doing — our special teams, our in-zone play, our forecheck, how we can get better reloading, how we can get better defensively, little things in these games that are razor-thin,” coach Tom Serratore said. “We’re just trying to worry about us, so I don’t know much about Ferris State. Yeah, we’ve watched them. We’re watching their special teams, but we’re so focused on Bemidji State right now.”
The Bulldogs are one of three teams in the country that do not have a conference win since the calendar flipped over to 2026 (Wisconsin and New Hampshire are the others). Ferris State, which is 4-24-0 and 3-17-0 in the CCHA, has lost 12 consecutive games, scoring more than three goals just once in that streak.
“It’s been a while since we played them, and we didn’t go there this year,” Roelofs said. “We have to watch film on them and get their special teams down. We have to do our pre-scout on Thursday and base our practices off of how they play and how they forecheck and how they defend.”
Ferris State will look a little different since the last time it played the Beavers.
The Bulldogs saw 33-year head coach Bob Daniels step down after the 2024-25 season. Brett Riley, who coached at Long Island last season, replaced Daniels, who finished his career with 510 wins.
FSU is the oldest team in college hockey, with an average age of 23 years and one month. The Bulldogs do not have a true freshman on the roster and welcomed in 13 transfers in the offseason.
With 13 seniors and graduate students on its roster, Ferris State is currently in a battle with Northern Michigan to avoid last place in the CCHA, which means missing the Mason Cup playoffs.
“It’s going to be high,” Serratore said of FSU’s desperation level. “It’s razor-thin right now. They probably should’ve won that game on Saturday night against Mankato. It’s just tight out there, and we know that. Every game that I’ve been in in college hockey over the course of the last 30 years has been the same. You just better be ready to play yourself, and that’s what I’m getting at. We have to execute.”
* Freshman forward Max Namestnikov is set to return to the lineup after missing last weekend’s series against Northern Michigan with an upper-body injury. BSU has no known injuries at this time.
* Freshman goaltender Max Hildebrand has started the last five games for the Beavers, breaking the tandem with junior Raythan Robbins. Hildebrand has a .889 save percentage in those five starts, including a 35-save performance on Saturday against NMU. Serratore said, “Max is a big kid and he’s played pretty good. We haven’t played that well in front of him. That’s how we’re looking at things a bit. We kind of feel that he’s a good goaltender, but we’ve hung him out to dry a little bit. We just decided to stick with him. He was sharp (against NMU on Saturday). There were some big saves he made during that game. It was nice to play with a lead. It’s a lot different playing with a lead, or even a one-goal lead, versus a four-goal lead. But the bottom line is he did produce, he got it done and he got the win.”
* Sophomore forward Alexi Sylvestre has dressed in seven straight games for the Beavers. He had a pair of primary assists against Northern Michigan on Saturday. Serratore said, “He’s a strong, heavy player. He’s 200 pounds. He’s 6-foot-2. He can rip a puck. He’s gotten quicker — he can get from point A to point B a lot quicker than he could last year, even probably (more) than he could earlier in the year. With the experience comes confidence. Now he’s not thinking. He’s just playing on instincts.” Serratore then praised Sylvestre’s versatility in playing both wing and center, saying, “He can play both because he’s got a good head. It’s nice to have some big, strong, rangy centers. We’ve got (Reilly Funk), obviously, so it’s nice to have that. He’s pretty versatile.”
