DATE: Sept. 30, 2005
Sophomore goalie Matt Climie named Pre-Season Player of the Year

BEMIDJI, Minn. - The Bemidji State men’s ice hockey program has been picked to finish second in College Hockey America in a pre-season vote of the league’s coaches, and sophomore goaltender Matt Climie (Leduc, Alberta) has been named CHA Pre-Season Player of the Year, the league office announced today. Junior wing Luke Erickson (Roseau, MInn.) joined Climie on the Pre-Season All-CHA Team.

Bemidji State, the two-time defending CHA regular-season champions and 2005 CHA Tournament titlists, finished second in an extremely tight race for pre-season favorite amongst the league’s coaches. BSU picked up two of five possible first-place votes (coaches can not vote for their own teams) and finished with 21 poll points, just behind pre-season favorite Ala.-Huntsville. The Chargers snagged three first-place votes and 22 total poll points, edging BSU for the top spot by one point.

Wayne State (Mich.) was a narrow choice for third place, picking up the sixth and final first-place tally and totalling 19 points in the ballot.

Niagara was fourth with 14 points; Robert Morris was the fifth-place choice with eight points, and Air Force was a unanimous selection for sixth place with six points.

Bemidji State finished its 2004-05 season with a 23-13-1 record, setting a school Division I-era record for wins and posting the second-most wins in a single season by a member of College Hockey America. The Beavers became the third team in the history of CHA to win both the league’s regular-season and conference tournament championships in the same season and tied their own CHA single-season record by winning 16 games in conference regular-season play. The CHA Tournament championship propelled BSU to its first NCAA Tournament appearance as a Division I program, where it took the now two-time national champions into overtime.

The Beavers finished the 2004-05 season ranked 15th in the nation in the USA Today / American Hockey Magazine Coaches Poll. It marked the first time in BSU’s Division I era it ended a season as a nationally-ranked program.

Climie becomes the first sophomore in College Hockey America history to be named the league’s pre-season Player of the Year. He used a remarkable second-half run last season to post a 1.80 goals-against average, the lowest at BSU in 40 years and the second-lowest by any goaltender in CHA history. He set a BSU single-season freshman record by posting four shutouts, and became the second goaltender in the history of the six current Division I conferences to post shutouts in both the semifinals and championship game of a conference tournament. Climie also established BSU Division I-era freshman records for victories (12) and consecutive scoreless minutes (177:41).

Erickson has piled up 70 points in his two years at Bemidji State and enters his junior campaign as the sixth-leading scorer in BSU’s Division I era. He piled up a Division I-era record 27 assists last year, and his 38 points were two shy of Brendan Cook’s Division I-era single-season record. He also assembled four consecutive multi-point games, tied for the longest streak at BSU since the start of the 1999 season.

BSU matched Ala.-Huntsville, which also had two representatives on the Pre-Season All-CHA Team. The Chargers saw forward Bruce Mulherin and defenseman Jeremy Schreiber, both seniors, honored on the squad. Niagara’s Andrew Lackner was the other defenseman, and Wayne State’s Stavros Paskaris rounded out the forwards.

Climie and Paskaris were the only sophomores honored.

Bemidji State opens its 2005-06 season on Saturday, Oct. 1 with an exhibition contest against Manitoba. Opening face-off is set for 7:35 p.m. Central time at the John S. Glas Fieldhouse on the BSU campus. BSU opens defense of its back-to-back CHA regular-season titles with its regular-season opener Oct. 7-8 at Minn.-Duluth.

2005-06 Pre-Season All-College Hockey America Team
F •Luke Erickson, Jr., Bemidji State
F Bruce Mulherin, Sr., Ala.-Huntsville
F Stavros Paskaris, So., Wayne State (Mich.)
D Jeremy Schreiber, Sr., Ala.-Huntsville
D Andrew Lackner, Sr., Niagara
G uMatt Climie, So., Bemidji State

2005-06 Pre-Season College Hockey America Player of the Year
•G Matt Climie (So., Bemidji State)

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