Bemidji State Men’s Hockey Restarts CCHA Play with Series at Bowling Green

BSU men’s hockey returns to league play this weekend on the road at Bowling Green. It’s the first of seven CCHA series left for the Beavers before the conference playoffs begin.

This time last year, Bemidji State was sitting atop the standings, but right now they currently sit in sixth, which means they have some climbing to do if they want to repeat as MacNaughton Cup Champions, let alone host a postseason series. It also doesn’t help that the Beavers have not fared well recently in Ohio, winning only three of their last 11 games at Bowling Green and being swept there last year.

“The Falcons are playing good hockey,” said head coach Tom Serratore. “I mean, they go into Lake Superior State last weekend and sweep. They got a good feeling right now and [it’s a] tough building [to play in]. Always been a tough place to play, always a fun place to play. So it’s that time of year where there’s a lot on the line every game, we recognize where everybody’s at right now and wins are big, boys.”

“It’s a pretty fun environment,” junior defenseman Patrik Satosaari said of Bowling Green’s Arena. “Small rink, crowd gets loud, and I got to give it to them, their student section is one of the best ones in our league, so it’s going to be fun there. I think we just got to worry about ourselves, not be looking, staring at the standings too much, and take it game by game.”

The last time the two teams played was in Bemidji, with the Beavers sweeping that series.