Oct 9, 2024 | By: Nathan Green
BSU Men’s Hockey Preps for Home-and-Home Series with St. Cloud State
Bemidji State men’s hockey is coming off a thrilling opening night overtime victory over 18th-ranked Minnesota Duluth. The win had plenty of storylines, but none bigger than sophomore goalie Raythan Robbins coming into the game cold off the bench to fill in for senior Mattias Sholl, who left the game after suffering from cramps following a split save midway through the third period.
Robbins earned the CCHA Goaltender of the Week award for his efforts, while head coach Tom Serratore confirmed that Sholl, last year’s CCHA Goaltender of the Year, is not expected to miss any time.
It’s a win-win for the Beavers as they head into this weekend’s home-and-home non-conference series with St. Cloud State, a match where they’re less worried about their opponents’ play and more focused on improving their own.
“We’re just so dialed in with the Beavers right now,” said Serratore at a press conference this week. “We’ve got a lot of videotape to show, we’ve got a lot of cleaning up to do. And I just want to make sure that we get to the point where we’re comfortable in all different situations. We’re comfortable in all three periods, we’re comfortable in all three zones. We’re playing faster, we’re reacting faster. I mean, those are the things that you work on right now and you talk about and a lot of it’s just timing-type thing. So I think this competition early on helps us, that’s for sure.”
“We’re a veteran group, we’ve got a lot of older guys on our team,” added graduate forward and alternate captain Eric Martin. “So I mean, we’ve played in so many tight games. We know what it takes to win. We know what it takes when we’re not playing well, and we’re playing well. Most of us have played there before, so it’ll definitely help us there and their home opener and you know, they’re definitely going to be fired up, they’re going to be ready to go. So I think we just got to come in there and play the same game we’ve been trying to play all preseason.”
BSU will be playing at St. Cloud State on Friday at 7:30 PM and have their home opener against the Huskies on Saturday at 6 PM.