Beavers open three-week race for CHA
title against long-time rival Chargers
Storylines
• BSU received five points in this week’s U.S. College
Hockey Online poll.
• Tom Serratore needs one win to tie Vic Weber for second
on the BSU career wins list (42). He will coach in his 100th
game at BSU on Friday.
• Bryce Methven will set BSU’s career record for
games played by a defenseman (133) on Friday.
• Andrew Murray enters the weekend on a team-best four-game
scoring streak.
• Riley Riddell will play his 100th career game on Friday.
Bemidji State (15-11-2 / 12-2-0 CHA) enters the stretch
run of the 2003-04 regular season, opening what promises
to be a three-week sprint for the College Hockey America
regular-season championship against long-time rival Alabama-Huntsville
(10-11-3 / 9-5-0 CHA). The Chargers enter play this weekend
in third place in CHA with 18 points, six points behind league-leading
BSU, and have a 7-5 win over the Beavers to their credit
earlier this season on Dec. 11.
Bemidji State enters play
this weekend and on some level is probably glad to see the
Chargers coming to Bemidji. BSU has spent the last two weekends
- and four of its last five - on the road, tackling nationally-ranked
opposition on Olympic-sized ice sheets. Friday’s series
opener against the Chargers will be just BSU’s third
home-ice contest in the 2004 calendar year, and just its
third since Dec. 6, 2003 - a span of 76 days.
The Beavers built
an eight-point lead in the CHA standings after a Jan. 30-31 sweep of Findlay,
which at the time was the largest lead of any conference leader in the nation.
But that lead has dwindled to two points as Niagara caught up with BSU in
league games played. Only a Charger victory over the visiting
Purple Eagles on Feb. 13 prevented Niagara from drawing even
with BSU in the standings.
Bemidji State will host Niagara in the regular season’s final
weekend, March 5-6, in a series which very well could decide the CHA’s
regular-season champion.
Bemidji State is in its fifth season of Division I play,
continuing the evolution of a program which has assembled
one of the finest traditions in college hockey and all of
American collegiate sports. A small-college dynasty prior
to its ascension to Division I status in 1999, the Beavers
hold 13 NAIA, NCAA Division II and NCAA Division III national
titles and have developed five NHL players, five Olympians
and more than 80 All-America selections. Now in its 48th
season of collegiate hockey, Bemidji State has compiled an
all-time record of 844-383-68 (.678) and has the highest
all-time winning percentage of the 58 programs which currently
comprise NCAA Division I ice hockey. Web Sites
Bemidji State: /athletics/
Ala.-Huntsville: http://www.uah.edu/Athletics/hockey/
College Hockey America: http://www.collegehockeyamerica.com
BSU Head Coach Tom Serratore
• Third season at Bemidji State, third season as
a collegiate head coach; 41-43-15 record
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