BSU Women’s Hockey Embraces Newness Ahead of Opening Weekend

It’s still only September, but college hockey is right around the corner.

Bemidji State women’s hockey starts their season on Friday in a weekend series with the defending national champion Ohio State Buckeyes. It’s quite the draw for the Beavers’ newest head coach, Amber Fryklund, who takes over for longtime bench boss Jim Scanlan after his resignation at the end of last season.

BSU won’t just have a new look on the bench but on the ice, too, with 12 new incoming players joining their ranks and a new style of play they hope will result in more scoring opportunities.

“We’re really excited to get going, obviously, with the new coaching staff. We’re really excited to kind of show what we’ve been working on,” said senior forward and captain Alyssa Watkins at a press conference today. “Some of the systems we’re running are definitely just like, new for everybody, so I think it takes learning for all. But I think also just our pace of practice has definitely been just a lot faster this year. And yeah, I think we just have a lot to – out to our older girls to have, just kind of instilling that. And then the younger girls obviously haven’t really known what to look up to in practices so far. So yeah, I think they’ve been really good, though.”

“To see them come together in such a short period of time already has been really, really neat to see,” said Fryklund. “Everyone’s just been really positive having a great mindset. Obviously there’s a lot of new things, a lot of new people, but everyone’s just been great with embracing change, but also building on the things that we had on our program here already. And so again, a lot of new things, but also, you know, consistency as well. So it’s been – everyone’s embraced it. Everyone’s just excited for the season to start.”

BSU’s opening night game against WCHA foe and #5 ranked Ohio State is this Friday, September 27th at 6 p.m., with Saturday, September 28th’s game at 3. The Beavs have lost 13 straight against the Buckeyes, their last win coming in 2022.