Oct. 26, 2009

NIAGARA UNIVERSITY, N.Y. -- For just the fifth time since the team made the jump to the NCAA Division I level prior to the 1999-2000 season, the Bemidji State University men’s ice hockey team has swept the College Hockey America weekly Player of the Week awards. The CHA office today announced that, Chris McKelvie (Sr., F, New Brighton, Minn.) has been selected offensive player of the week, Brad Hunt (So., D, Ridge Meadows, British Columbia) earned defensive player of the week laurels and Mathieu Dugas (Fr., G, L'Assomption, Quebec) is the recipient of the rookie of the week award.


McKelvie earns the offensive player of the week honor after he picked up two goals and an assist to help the Beavers to a 1-0-1 weekend at Northern Michigan University. The senior posted his first helper of the season in the Beavers' 3-3 tie Friday. In Saturday’s series finale, McKelvie netted a short-handed, game-winning goal before adding an unassisted, even-strength marker midway through the third period to mark the second multi-goal game of his career. He finished the weekend with a +3 plus/minus rating and added a pair of blocked shots.

Hunt is this week’s CHA Defensive Player of the Week after netting three assists against the Wildcats. Hunt recorded a helper on a Jordan George (Fr., F, Madison, Wis.) power-play goal in the opening moments of Friday’s third period to ignite a BSU comeback. He helped complete the rally adding an assist on Ben Kinne’s (So., F, St. Paul, Minn.) game-tying goal with just 10.6 seconds on the clock to salvage a tie. The multi-point night was the second of the season for Hunt. Saturday, the defender again proved to be an asset on the man advantage registering an assist on the Beavers’ only power-play goal of the evening.

Dugas rounds out the BSU trio as the CHA Rookie of the Week after earning a 13-save shutout in his first collegiate game. He is only the third Beaver in team history to earn a shutout in their first career game, joining Jim Scanlan (1979-1982) and Matt Climie (2004-08).

The award marks the first conference honor for McKelvie and Dugas, while it stands as the seventh player of the week award for Hunt. In 2008-09, the Ridge Meadows, British Columbia native was pegged as the league's defensive player of the week on three occasions and garnered three rookie of the week laurels.

The awards stand as the third, fourth and fifth conference honors of the 2009-10 for the Bemidji State men.

The 3-0-1 Beavers’ now turn their focus to CHA play as they travel to Huntsville, Ala. Oct. 31-Nov. 1 for a two-game set versus long-time rival University of Alabama-Huntsville. The rare Saturday/Sunday series gets underway at 7 p.m. Saturday with the series finale set for a 1 p.m. Sunday matinee. Both games will be played at the Von Braun Center.

2009-10 Bemidji State CHA Player of the Week recipients
Oct. 12 - Matt Read - Offensive Player of the Week
Oct. 12 - Jordan George - Rookie of the Week
Oct. 26 - Chris McKelvie - Offensive Player of the Week
Oct. 26 - Brad Hunt - Defensive Player of the Week
Oct. 26 - Mathieu Dugas - Rookie of the Week

--bsu--