Tom Serratore the heart and soul of the Beavers

Having attended college at both BSU and UND, I have a fondness for the Bemidji State Beavershockey program.

Over the years, I have not found a lot of fans that dislike the Bemidji State Beavers. Sure you have a few.

I was there in the stands when the Beavers won the Division II National Title in 1993 against the Mercy Hurst Lakers, so I still have a few fond memories of the John S. Glas Fieldhouse on the BSU campus as well.

I also have a great respect for the Beavers head coach Tom Serratore, 12th year, 201–184–49, I think he brings a lot of energy to the room and if you run into him at Galen Nagel golf tourney at the Bemidji Town and Country, or see him at the postgame press conference, he’s the same person. Tom’s usually fired up.

Coach Serratore is what I classify as a high energy guy that brings a lot of enthusiasm to life and to the game of hockey. The Beavers play on the ice resembles the man behind the bench, tenacious, fiery, hardworking and up-tempo.

I also think that he’s a very good hockey coach, his teams are hard to play against and they play a high pressure fore-check that is incorrectly mistaken for the neutral zone trap.

This high pressure fore-check, if played to perfection, can lead to turn overs going the other way. This was the case on Friday night, as the Beaver’s and Gophers treated the fans to a great game of up and down the ice action.

Saturday night, not so much, the Gophers pretty much had their way with the Beavers and the Gophers never really gave the fans much doubt.

If you want to see what kind of coach Serratore is, go back and re-watch the 2009 NCAA Midwest Regional Semifinal game against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. The Beavers had the Irish on their heels by scoring early and they forced the Irish to change their game plan. The Beavers would win the game 5-1, shocking the college hockey world.

The next night, the Beavers put the college hockey world into a coma by beating the Cornell Big Red 4-1 to send them to the Frozen Four in Washington D.C. at the Verizon Center, where their magical season would end two weeks later to the eventual runner up Miami.

This season, it’s been a rough year for the Beavers, but there will be better years ahead for the BSU hockey team. I don’t think any hockey program is going to be immune from it. The Minnesota Gophers just suffered through three rough seasons.

I love to go to the postgame press conferences and listen to Tom Serratore speak, last night he seemed very emotional in talking about his senior class. This was the last class to play in the John Glas Fieldhouse and then play at the new Sanford Center. This was also the senior class that made the move from the now defunct CHA to the WCHA.

“They’ve accomplished a lot here,” Bemidji State head coach Tom Serratore said when discussing his senior class. “We have five years seniors, four year seniors and three year seniors. Some of them helped us go to a Frozen Four in 09. They were part of a team in 2010 that was a number two seed in the NCAA tournament. We received an at-large-bid and went to Fort Wayne, Indiana for the Midwest Regionals.  They were a big part of team that advanced to the WCHA Final Five as we transitioned into the WCHA that first year. Again, last year, we were basically a game from home ice in the WCHA, last year. You know what; they’ve done a lot of good things for this program. It’s tough to see those guys go. You can’t take away from their accomplishments.”

It’s no doubt that this class has had some big-time moments in BSU’s historic program and you can bet, it won’t be long before Bemidji is again standing in the lime light of another great run, thanks to its energetic head coach.

Cross-posted at the Hockey Writers Combine.

Related articles

• Gophers Get Past Beavers in Bemidji (insidehockey.com)
• Gophers Ruin Beavers' Senior Night (insidehockey.com)

Sioux and Beavers Series Preview

 Cross Posted at Inside Hockey. The University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux resume play this weekend when they travel to Bemidji, Minnesota to play the Bemidji State University Beavers in a WCHA series Saturday 7:07 PM CT and Sunday 7:07 PM CT.
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If you were to look at the WCHA standings you will see that the Beavers are currently ninth in the WCHA standings three points ahead of the Fighting Sioux.  The Sioux currently occupy 11^th place in the WCHA standings.

Since the 2002-03 season the Fighting Sioux have an almost perfect 14-0-1 record against the BSU Beavers.

The games will be on Lakeland Public Television  Bemidji, Minnesota. Play-by-play announcer Scott Williams and color commentator former BSU Beaver Eric Monsrud call the games for the Beavers.

Radio: The games can be heard at 96.1 the Fox.

Internet: Americaone [click to view]

 Records and Rankings:

UND – 3-6-1 overall, 1-5-0 WCHA; unranked in both polls. The Fighting Sioux were idle last week.
BSU – 4-7-1 overall, 2-5-1 WCHA; unranked in both polls. The Beavers tied 3-3 and lost 5-1 to the UNO Mavericks.

Players to Watch:  

For the Fighting Sioux junior forward Danny Kristo 4g-8a—12pts is the leading scorer. On the other side of the ice senior defenseman Brady Hunt 2g-9a—10 pts is the leading scorer or the Beavers.

Junior goalie Aaron Dell is the top goaltender for the Fighting Sioux. Dell has a 2-5-1 record with a 3.20 goals against average and a .875 save percentage.

Senior goalie Dan Bakala is the top goaltender for the Beavers. Bakala has a 2-4-1 record with a .302 goals against average with a .898 save percentage.

Key Numbers:

3 – The Beavers are ranked third in the WCHA on the penalty kill in the WCHA; the Beavers have killed 43/52 of their opponent’s power plays.

4 – The Fighting Sioux are ranked fourth on the penalty kill in the WCHA; the Fighting Sioux have killed 38/46 of their opponent’s power plays.

7 – The Fighting Sioux are ranked seventh in the WCHA in penalty minutes.

8 – The Fighting Sioux power play is ranked eighth in the WCHA going 9/51

9 – The Beavers power play is ranked ninth in the WCHA going 7/40

9 – The Beavers are ranked ninth in the WCHA in scoring.

10 – The Beavers are ranked 10^th in the WCHA in penalty minutes.

10 – The Fighting Sioux are ranked 10^th in the WCHA in scoring.

12 – The Fighting Sioux have scored 12 goals in six WCHA games.

14 – Aaron Dell is ranked 14^th in goals against average in the WCHA.

16 – Aaron Dell is ranked 16^th in save percentage in the WCHA.

Other games in the WCHA: Nebraska Omaha at Denver; Minnesota at Saint Cloud on Friday, Saint Cloud at Minnesota on Saturday; Michigan Tech at Alaska-Anchorage; Wisconsin at Colorado College; Minnesota State at Minnesota Duluth.

Beavers 3 Bulldogs 2 O.T.

The Bemidji State Beavers have proven to be giant killers as of late, after traveling to Omaha, Nebraska and beating the third place UNO Mavericks during the first round of the WCHA playoffs, the Beavers went into tonight’s game having everything to gain and nothing to lose. Their task is to secure an auto qualifier in NCAA tourney. Based on their Pairwise ranking and their record 15-17-5 the BSU Beavers are going to have to win the WCHA Final Five if they want to make the NCAA tourney.

Tonight with the win against the UMD Bulldogs the Beavers were successful in the first step of a long journey. The BSU Beavers now live to fight another night as they will play the Denver Pioneers tomorrow afternoon at 2:07 pm. Denver swept the Beavers back in November 3-1 and 4-2 at home. So if the Beavers want to move on to the next round of the Final Five they are going to have to go through the second place Pioneers. If the Beavers beat Denver they are going then have to play the winner of the UND-CC game; albeit a tall order but not impossible.

BSU down 2-1 going into the third period when senior forward Matt Read scored the eqfualizer at the 0:28 mark of the third period to send the game to overtime. The Beavers beat the fourth place UMD Bulldogs 3-2 in overtime as Shea Walters scored at the 06:12 mark of the first overtime to send the Bulldogs packing and the Beavers to the semis. It was the first goal of the season for the junior forward from Hibbing, Minnesota.

Quotes from the post game press conference

Mike Connelly, UMD Junior Forward
"We came in and we did what we had to do, take the lead, got the second one. We came into the third period with a 2-1 lead. We came out pretty flat and we were never able to recover. Our record shows that we've been [to overtime] quite a bit. I think we are all comfortable in overtime, but tonight obviously wasn't our night, mainly because of a lack of effort from the players. We need to regroup and get ready for the next weekend."

Scott Sandelin UMD Head Coach
On not having to play (potentially) three games in three days before the NCAA tourney...
"The one thing about this team all year is that when they've had their backs against the wall, they've responded the right way every time and I expect our team to do the same. For us it gives us some time to rest a little bit. We have some guys that are banged up, hurt, sick and that stuff. It's no excuse. They've played because they came here to win this tournament. We have another chance, so hopefully our guys can continue to do what they've done all year.
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Shea Walters BSU Junior Forward
On his game winning goal in overtime...
"It was a big win off the draw. It got kicked up to Dan MacIntyre who made a nice pass across and [Jamie McQueen] had a nice screen in front fortunately it went in. I just wanted to get it on net as quick as I could."

Tom Serratore BSU Head Coach
On the game...
"First off, I'm just proud of the guys. It was a tough game. I felt in the second period that we didn't have good legs. I thought UMD took it to us, but we were only down one goal [heading into the period]. Read converting in the first minute of the third period really elevated our play. It was a great 3rd period and we were fortunate to get the last bounce in overtime."

Some highlights from Saturday's UNO and BSU game

I found this video over on the BSU hockey beat writers blog. Play by play by Scott Williams and Eric Monsrud from Lakeland Public Television. I think it's only fitting that UNO who won a game against UND with no time left on the clock got scored on with no time left in the second period against the BSU Beavers. Here is some highlights from last Saturday's game between the BSU Beavers and UNO Mavericks.