The Match up
    The Bemidji State University men’s ice hockey team is set to open the 2014-15 season with a non-conference home-and-home series versus University of North Dakota this weekend.  The Beavers will travel to Grand Forks, N.D. and Ralph Engelstad Arena Friday to lift the lid on the season before they return to Sanford Center for their 2014-15 home opener.  
    Under the direction of head coach Tom Serratore, who is in his 14th season at the helm of Beaver hockey, BSU returns 20 players and nearly 80 percent of his scoring from a team that finished the 2013-14 campaign 10-21-7 overall and sat eighth in the final Western Collegiate Hockey Association standings  with a 10-14-4 mark in league play.
    Junior forward Cory Ward returns after netting a career-high 18 goals and 11 assists to lead the Beavers with 29 points. Ward was among the top 15 scorers in the WCHA and was joined by fellow junior Markus Gerbrandt tied for sixth among league goal scorers with 13 goals in WCHA action. Co-captain Matt Prapavessis paced the team with a career-best 17 assists and led all BSU blueliners in scoring. Andrew Walsh saw the bulk of time in BSU’s net last year. He posted a 7-12-4 record with a 3.04 goals against average and .904 save percentage to backstop a BSU defensive corps that killed penalties at an 86-percent rate and allowed 3.11 goals per game.
    North Dakota will open the season as the No. 2 team in the country according to both major men’s hockey polls. Following a season in which Dave Hakstol and company posted a 25-14-3 record and made an appearance in the Frozen Four, UND returns 20 players, including Flyers’ draft pick Michael Parks, who was second on the team in scoring a year ago netting 12 goals and 18 assists for 30 points. Zane McIntyre shouldered the bulk of the goaltending duties in 2013-14 and posted a 20-10-3 record with a 1.99 goals against average and a .926 save percentage.

The Rivalry
    In a series that dates back to 1970, North Dakota holds a 25-3-3 advantage over BSU, which includes a 1-1 tie last season. BSU is 1-18-3 when playing UND in Grand Forks, and owns a 2-7-0 mark on its home ice. Despite the win-loss differential, seven of the last 14 meetings between the teams have been decided by one goal or less. BSU is 1-0-1 versus North Dakota since Nov. 20, 2011 at Sanford Center. BSU earned a 1-0 victory on that date and posted a 1-1 tie Jan. 17 of last season.

The Coaches
    Tom Serratore (Bemidji State ‘86) is in his 14th season as BSU’s head coach and has an overall record of 211-207-56. Serratore’s teams have won CHA regular-season championships five times since 2003-04 and made trips to the NCAA Tournament in 2005, 2006, 2009 and 2010, with a 2009 appearance in the Frozen Four.  He is a five-time CHA Coach of the Year recipient and was Spencer Penrose National Coach of the Year Runner-up in 2009.
    In his 11th season at North Dakota, Dave Hakstol has led UND to an overall record of 260-132-40 (.648) and nine consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament, which includes five Frozen Four appearances. Hakstol, a player at UND from 1989-92, was an assistant at North Dakota for four years prior to taking the reigns of the program.