BSU Men’s Hockey Readies for Home-and-Home Series with Regional Rival UMD

It’s another week, another regional rivalry for Bemidji State men’s hockey. Like last weekend, they will be playing a home-and-home series, but this time against Minnesota Duluth.

BSU is coming off being swept by St. Cloud State, where early penalties sunk the Beavers. The Green and White were in the penalty box three times in the first period on Friday night, four times on Saturday, and trailed by two goals in both games when the first horn sounded.

As to whether the slow starts were mental or based on execution, head coach Tom Serratore said, “I don’t know. I could sit there and lie to you, tell you whatever you want to hear, but I don’t know. None of us know. I don’t ask the guys, but sometimes what happens, happens. And I always say the other team has something to say about that. So let’s give credit to St. Cloud a little bit.”

He continued, “We’ve got to play 60 minutes and we got to stay out of the box. I mean, obviously, both nights the first period was tough on us. And again, the score was 3-1 after one on Friday. At the end of the day, we just, we were chasing the game.”

Sophomore defenseman Luke Roelofs, who took all three first-period penalties on Friday, said, “I don’t think I’ve ever had three penalties in a game. It’s hard to get in a rhythm when you have your [penalty kill] guys, and then they’re trying to match the lines back after being on the kill. It’s tough for guys to get into rhythms, so I feel like if we can just play a 5-on-5 game when we can roll four lines, guys get in a rhythm and feel comfortable with their linemates, then I feel like we’ll be in a good spot this weekend.”

BSU split last year’s series with UMD, winning in overtime on the road in their first match-up to open the season before falling at home on New Year’s Eve. The Beavers will host the Bulldogs on Friday, October 17 at 7 p.m. and then play in Duluth on Saturday, October 18 at 6 p.m.