December 3, 2007

DETROIT - The Bemidji State University men’s ice hockey team today made a clean sweep of the College Hockey America weekly awards with forward Tyler Scofield (Jr., Prince George, British Columbia) earning the top offensive honor, goaltender Matt Climie (Sr., Leduc, Alberta) getting the Defensive Player of the Week nod and freshman forward Matt Read (Ilderton, Ontario) being named CHA Rookie of the Week for their performances in BSU’s Nov. 30-Dec. 1 series at No. 17/19 Niagara University.

BSU’s sweep of the league player of the week honors marks just the third time the Beavers have taken all three awards during a single week in their nine-year membership in the CHA. This week's trio of honorees follows Rob Sirianni, Climie and Chris Peluso (So., D, Wadena, Minn.) were named offensive, defensive and rookie of the week Dec. 18th, 2006 while Ryan Huddy, Riley Weselowski (Sr., D, Pilot Mound, Manitoba) and Brandon Marino (Jr., F, Riverside, Calif.) swept the awards on Jan. 23, 2006.

Scofield led the Beavers with 2-1=3 points on the weekend as Bemidji State posted a 1-0-1 record at defending CHA regular-season champion Niagara. The junior recorded his first two-goal night of the season Friday netting a power-play goal to get the Beavers on the board early and added an insurance marker late in the game to solidify the BSU 5-1 victory and effectively end a Niagara 22-game home unbeaten streak. Scofield added an assist on Weselowski's first goal of the season Saturday as the Beavers skated to a 2-2 tie with the Purple Eagles. Since returning to the lineup after injury, Scofield has scored in three of four contests and has posted 2-2=4 points in the Beavers' last three outings.

Climie put up a 1-0-1 record at No. 17/19 Niagara last weekend. The senior earned his league-leading fourth CHA victory between the pipes Friday making 30 saves while allowing just one power-play goal as the Beavers snapped NU's home unbeaten streak. The following evening, he stopped 23 shots allowing two goals as BSU salvaged a tie to take three CHA points out of New York. Climie finished the weekend with a 1.44 goals against average and made a total of 53 saves for a save percentage of .946 in 125:55 minutes between the pipes. The senior also backstopped a stingy penalty kill unit that held the high-octane Purple Eagle power-play to just 1-of-13 (.076) in the two-game set.

Read strengthened his grip on the CHA's scoring lead after netting the first short-handed goal of his career Saturday. The rookie, on tremendous individual effort, stole the puck on an aggressive fore check, used his speed to beat the Purple Eagle defense down the ice and fired the puck past the NU goaltender to give the Beavers an early 1-0 lead. The unassisted marker would help BSU to a 2-2 tie in the game. The goal was the third of the freshman's season as he continues to pace all CHA newcomers with 3-3=6 points in league play. Currently one of the hottest Beavers, Read, who has scored 2-3=5 points in BSU's last five contests, finished the series with a plus/minus rating of +3.

The CHA Offensive Player of the Week award is the first of Scofield's career and marks just the second time he has been the focal point of a league weekly award following a Dec. 5, 2005 Rookie of the Week nod. Climie was named Defensive Player of the Week for the third time this season and Read earned his second CHA Rookie of the Week award of 2007-08. Climie was also the leagues' selection for Defensive Player of the Week Nov. 5th after a shutout over Niagara and again Nov. 12 after a shutout at Alabama-Huntsville. Read was previously named CHA Rookie of the Week Nov. 19 after a three-point conference series at Wayne State (Mich.).

Monday’s selections mark the eighth, ninth and tenth of the season for Bemidji State. Just eight weeks into the 2007-08 campaign, the Beavers have nearly eclipsed their total of 13 CHA awards won during the entire 2006-07 season.

BSU has garnered at least two player of the week selections for each week it was in action during the month of November.

Bemidji State, 6-6-2 overall and 4-2-2 in CHA play, returns to the John S. Gals Fieldhouse for a conference match up with Alabama-Huntsville this weekend. The home series marks the first regular-season contests at the Glas since a pair of showdowns with Niagara, Nov. 2-3. The puck drops on the series at 7:35 p.m. Friday with a 7:05 p.m. start set for the series finale Saturday.

2007 Bemidji State CHA Player of the Week recipients
Oct. 16 - Jamie Ruff - Rookie of the Week
Nov. 5 - Matt Climie - Defensive Player of the Week
Nov. 5 - Joey Moggach - Offensive Player of the Week
Nov. 12 - Matt Climie - Defensive Player of the Week
Nov. 12 - Travis Winter - Offensive Player of the Week
Nov. 19 - Cody Bostock - Defensive Player of the Week
Nov. 19 - Matt Read - Rookie of the Week
Dec. 3 - Tyler Scofield - Offensive Player of the Week
Dec. 3 - Matt Climie - Defensive Player of the Week
Dec. 3 - Matt Read - Rookie of the Week

--bsu--