UND MEN’S HOCKEY: Bemidji State gets its wish

Not everyone thinks the UND Fighting Sioux hockey team or UND Fighting Sioux hockey Coach Dave Hakstol are rude. Just for the record if I get out of bed tomorrow I am going to luncheon at the BREC at 1130 am where I can listen to both coaches speak about this weekend's match up and the new hockey arena.

Grand Forks Herald --- (Serratore said) “We respect their program so much,” said Serratore, who is entering his 10th season as head coach of the Beavers. “They came and played us at the John Glas Fieldhouse when we were emerging as a D-I program. I look at those guys as great ambassadors to the game.

“They were the only team we really wanted to open up with. I’m glad that they can share this event with us.”

There’s no doubt that UND had a role in helping the Bemidji State program to this day. It was former Sioux coach Bob Peters who led the Beavers through NAIA, NCAA Division III and NCAA Division II levels before hitting the big time. He will drop a ceremonial first puck tonight.

In 2001, UND became the first national powerhouse to travel to Bemidji to play in a two-game, Division I series. The Sioux made subsequent trips to Bemidji in 2005, 2007 and 2008.

UND also lobbied in support of Bemidji State’s acceptance into the WCHA when it appeared the Beavers had no other conference options.

“They took care of us,” Serratore said.

So, when the WCHA released the 2010-11 schedule, Serratore publicly thanked the league for accommodating Bemidji State’s request.

Tonight, reality sinks in for the Beavers.

Bemidji State men's hockey: Nagle coin set in concrete at each end of BREC arena

Here is an interesting story about the BREC Robert H. Peters Rink. A nice honor to a great guy Galen Nagle. I can't wait to golf in the Galen Nagle Tourney again this season.

Before the 2002 Winter Olympics at Salt Lake City, Canadian ice makers placed a Loonie coin on the arena floor under the center ice face-off dot before making the ice for the hockey tournaments.

The Canadian men and women won the gold medals.

In 2008, a Boston baseball fan buried a Red Sox jersey in the concrete at the new Yankee Stadium construction site.

At great expense, the jersey was chipped out.

Even the John Glas Fieldhouse on the Bemidji State University campus was infiltrated last summer when a member of the rival Alabama-Huntsville team placed a horse, representing their Chargers mascot, somewhere in the arena. It has yet to be found.

The Bemidji Regional Event Center, new home to Beavers hockey, will have its own talisman, or maybe it could be considered a memorial to a fallen teammate.

Tom Kaplan, a defenseman for the Beavers in the mid 1970s and current public address announcer, came up with the idea to place a Galen Nagle medallion in the concrete floor of the new arena.

Nagle was a goalie for the Beavers from 1980-84. He worked as a coach and teacher in Minnesota for several years before losing his life to cancer in 1996 at the age of 34. [Read the rest of the story]

BREC - BSU HOCKEY ARENA

Moose Richards of KBUN Sports Radio "the Bun" and the award winning Hockey Show sent me some recent pictures of the new Bemidji Regional Event Center as it nears completion. BSU and the UND Fighting Sioux will open the event center in October.

Video tour of the Bemidji Regional Event Center

Nice to see the BREC taking shape in Bemidji. This building is going to help the Beavers recruit some good players and will even things out with other schools in the WCHA.