BEMIDJI, Minn. – The Bemidji State University Men's Hockey begins a four-game road trip this weekend and will travel to Mankato, Minn., to face the Minnesota State University, Mankato Mavericks at Mayo Clinic HSEC.
 
The Beavers (4-6-0, 3-3-0 CCHA) battle their rival Mavericks (4-3-1, 2-0-0 CCHA) for a two-game Central Collegiate Hockey Association series beginning Friday, Nov. 17 at 7:07 p.m., with game two to follow Saturday at 6:07 p.m.
 
Each game will be streamed online at FloHockey.tv with play-by-play provided by Maverick Radio. A Beaver Radio Network radio broadcast with play-by-play by Brian Schultz will also be available for each game and can be found on the dial at 92.1 FM or online at www.beaverradionetwork.com.
 
Bemidji State Notes

• The Bemidji State-Minnesota State rivalry is one of the longest in college hockey and has totaled 143 games spanning 49 years.
• The Beavers and Mavericks first did battle in 1974 and Minnesota State holds a slight edge over BSU with a 67-60-16 record in the all-time series.
• Home ice advantage has favored the home team in the series with Bemidji State 38-27-5 when hosting the Mavericks. However, when the Beavers travel to Mankato, they are just 21-39-11.
• Bemidji State got the best of MSU in last year's season series going 3-1-0 with two overtime victories over the Mavericks.
• Beaver head coach Tom Serratore is 20-44-5 when coaching against the Mavericks in his 23 seasons at the helm of the BSU Men's Hockey program.
• Fifth-year captain and Mankato, Minn., native Kyle Looft shown up to play against his hometown team and score both game-winning overtime goals in last year's overtime meetings.
• Looft has seen the most ice against the Mavericks, playing in 18 career games versus Minnesota State. He has posted three points off two goals and an assist while Eric Martin (3a) and Jakub Lewandowski (2g-1a) have also tallied three points against the Mavericks.
• Sophomore Mattias Sholl has seen the most time in net against Minnesota State and in eight starts, he is 3-5-0 with a 2.92 goals against average and .903 save percentage.
• Sholl has not played since Oct. 27 due to an injury however, with senior Gavin Enright taking his place in between the pipes.
• Enright is 0-1-0 with one start and two appearances versus the Mavericks and has posted a 3.75 goals against average and .857 save percentage.
• Bemidji State remains out of the USAToday/The Rink Live and USCHO.com top-20 national polls while the Mavericks are receiving votes in the USCHO.com poll but unranked the USAToday/The Rink Live poll.
• The Beavers are coming off a series split with Michigan Technological University last wekend at Sanford Center.
• After falling 4-2 in the series opener Friday night, the Beavers found themselves down 4-0 with 26:22 before staging the largest comeback in its DI era scoring six unanswered to defeat the Huskies 6-4 in regulation.
• Looft helped spark the historic comeback factoring in on three of the Beavers' six goals tallying two goals and an assist. He was named the CCHA Defenseman of the Week for the second time this season after finishing with five points (3g-2a) over the weekend.
• Six total Beavers recorded two or more points in the series finale versus the Huskies after the Beavers scored a season-high six goals.
• Looft has been red-hot through the first 10 games this season. He leads CCHA blueliners and is tied for third among all skaters in the league with 12 points (5g-7a). He is tied for fifth among DI defensemen in points and second in goals.
• He is also one of the best in his defensive zone, carrying a +5 rating on the ice into the weekend to tie for seventh in the CCHA and is eighth in the league with 17 blocked shots.
• Looft has recorded a point in the last four games totaling seven points (3g-4a) and has recorded a point in seven of the Beavers' 10 games this season including three multi-point efforts.
• Fellow fifth-year senior Carter Jones follows him with a point in three consecutive games and has four points (4a) over the last three games. He had two assists in the Beavers' last game against MTU for his second career multi-assist effort.
• Sophomore Lleyton Roed leads the team with seven goals and has totaled nine points for second on the team. He is tied for second in the CCHA in goals and tied for 10th in DI.
• Roed paces the Beavers with eight points in eight games and his seven goals are tied for the CCHA lead and tied for sixth in Division I.
• 18 different Beavers have recorded a point and have seen 10 different goal scorers.
• 18 of the Beavers' 27 goals this season have been scored by underclassmen.
• 2023-24 is the 68th season of Bemidji State Men's Hockey and 25th in Division I. The Beavers are 1,175-690-150 (.624) in 67 seasons and 389-396-102 (.501) in Division I.
• Head coach Tom Serratore enters his 23rd season at the helm of the Bemidji State Men's Hockey program. He is 372-350-97 (.515) in his coaching career.
• Serratore stands 12th in career victories among active head coaches in Division I and his career winning percentage of .515 is 17th.
• Since taking over the Bemidji State Men's Hockey program in 2001, Serratore's teams have achieved six regular-season conference championships, three CHA tournament titles, five NCAA Tournament appearances, one NCAA Frozen Four appearance (2009) and is a seven-time conference Coach of the Year.
• During the off-season, Serratore announced the addition of two assistants to his coaching staff. Andrew Magera (Penn State '21) and Brock Kautz (Minnesota '19) will each serve as assistant coaches for the 2023-24 season.
• They join Associate Head Coach Travis Winter as the four leaders of the program this season.
• Fifth-year senior Kyle Looft made his return to the Beaver Hockey program and was voted by his teammates to lead the 2023-24 Beavers on and off the ice as the team's captain.
• He is assisted by fellow fifth-year senior Carter Jones as well as seniors Eric Martin and Jackson Jutting who will wear the "A".
• Bemidji State was voted to finish fourth by league coaches in this year's CCHA Preseason Coaches' Poll. The Beavers were voted to finish fifth by members of the league's media.
• Freshman Eric Pohlkamp (Brainerd, Minn.) was voted as the league's Preseason Rookie of the Year in both the coaches and media polls while Looft was selected to the Preseason All-CCHA Team by the media.
• BSU returns 21 athletes from 2022-23 (11 forwards, eight defensemen, two goaltenders) and lost 8 athletes (five forwards, two defensemen, one goaltender) to graduation.
• Serratore has added seven newcomers to the squad with five forwards, one defenseman and one goaltender.
• One of those newcomers is Eric Pohlkamp who was selected in the fifth round (132nd) of the NHL's 2023 Entry Draft. He is the first Beaver NHL Draft pick since Radoslav Illo was selected in the 2009 NHL Entry Draft (139th).
• Pohlkamp is the sixth Beaver to be drafted into the NHL joining Illo, Chris Peluso (seventh round - Pittsburgh - 194th), Andrew Murray (eighth round - Columbus - 242nd), Gary Sargent (third round - Los Angeles - 48th) and Dale Smedsmo (seventh round - Toronto - 93rd).
• The Beavers return their leading scorer from 2022-23 in sophomore Lleyton Roed. Roed was the first BSU freshman since Matt Read (2007-08) to lead the team in scoring.
• He played in all 36 games and posted 31 points off 13 goals and 18 assists, the fifth highest point total by a Beaver freshman in its DI era.
• Roed was tied for seventh in the CCHA among all skaters in scoring and 11th in goals and was the leagues leading freshman point getter and finished 19th nationally.
• The Beavers graduated four of its top five scorers from last year and following Roed, junior Jere Vasanen is the next top returner after posting 17 points (7g-10a) in 36 games.
• Roed and Looft are the Beavers' top returning power-play goal scorers after the pair each netted three goals on a BSU power play unit that finished third in the CCHA last year.
• Bemidji State returns starting goaltender Mattias Sholl who started 30 of the team's 36 games last year.
• Sholl posted a 11-13-5 record in net and was third in the CCHA with a 2.26 goals against average and sixth in save percentage (.908).
• He is joined by senior Gavin Enright as well as newcomer Raythan Robbins (Anchorage, Alaska).
• The 2023-24 Beaver roster consists of 28 student-athletes with two fifth-year seniors, five seniors, seven juniors, seven sophomores and seven freshmen.
• The team consists of 11 Minnesotans, 22 from North America including five Canadians and six from Europe.
• By average, the Beavers stand as one of the smallest in Division I. They are the eighth smallest by height averaging 5'11.8" and second smallest by weight averaging 180.5 pounds.
• Looft returns as one the most seasoned defensemen in college hockey and has played in the second most games in DI by a defenseman at 147. He trails T.J. Lloyd of Alaska-Fairbanks by one game and Ethan Somoza by 24 games for the program's most games played record.

For more information on the Bemidji State men's hockey program, tickets or schedules, visit BSUBeavers.com, follow the Beavers on Twitter or Instagram (@BSUBeaversMHKY), or like them on Facebook (facebook.com/BSUBeavers).
 
Located on the shore of Lake Bemidji, Bemidji State University sponsors 15 varsity athletic programs with NCAA Division I men's hockey in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association and women's hockey in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, while its 13 NCAA Division II programs hold membership in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC).
 
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