Bemidji State Men’s Hockey to Face Top Seed Minnesota State in Mason Cup Semifinals

BSU Men’s Hockey is back in the Mason Cup Semifinals for the 2nd straight season after upsetting 2 seed Augustana in the quarterfinal round. The Beavers had their backs against the wall after losing to Augustana on Friday, but as dug themselves out of the hole by winning Saturday and Sunday to take the series.

“It feels amazing,” said senior forward Jere Vaisanen. “We’ve been up and down. This past weekend we were also a little bit up and down, to be honest, but we found a way to get it done.”

“Going into that weekend, we knew it was going to be huge challenge,” he continued. “Augustana is a great team, so for us to get it done gives us a lot of confidence for sure going into next weekend and hopefully the weekend after.”

Bemidji State will now face top seed Minnesota State in the semis. The Beavers are 1-2-1 against the 15th ranked Mavericks this season and have only managed to score one goal in each of the four games against their rivals from the south. But the 3 game series format now changes to single-elimination games for the remainder of the post-season which can be helpful if you’re trying to play spoiler.

“Hey, who’s kidding? The two out of threes are different than an elimination game, no question,” said  head coach Tom Serratore. “Because again, there’s no tomorrow in an elimination game. But every game has a different personality. I don’t want anyone to sit there and say, ‘Hey, I want this. I want that.’ you know? We’ll just see what happens.”

“Again, these games, they typically take on a life of their own,” he added. “We don’t create that life, and we have to adapt to that life. That’s what I’m getting at. Now, are we going to be pitching? Are we be catching for a while? I don’t know. You got to just stick with it because there’s going to be so many things that you can control, but there’s going to be more things that you can’t control [so you] just try to control the things you can control.”

Puck drop is at 7pm for BSU vs. MSU, but before they play, Bowling Green and St. Thomas will play in the other semifinal at 4pm. The Tommies are ineligible to make the NCAA tournament this year due to probationary restrictions as part of their move from D3 to D1, so if they win, the winner between the Beavers and the Mavericks will automatically take the CCHA’s automatic bid.