{"id":27811,"date":"2017-04-10T09:53:28","date_gmt":"2017-04-10T14:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/?p=27811"},"modified":"2017-04-10T09:53:28","modified_gmt":"2017-04-10T14:53:28","slug":"bemidji-pioneer-beavers-take-home-more-awards-bitzer-named-all-american-harms-wins-senior-class-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/2017\/04\/10\/bemidji-pioneer-beavers-take-home-more-awards-bitzer-named-all-american-harms-wins-senior-class-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Bemidji Pioneer: Beavers take home more awards: Bitzer named All-American, Harms wins Senior CLASS Award"},"content":{"rendered":"

BEMIDJI — On the penultimate day of the college hockey season, members of the Bemidji State men’s hockey team got to take one final (metaphorical) victory lap for their successful 2016-17 campaign. Junior goaltender Michael Bitzer continued to rack up more awards, while senior forward Brendan Harms closed out his BSU career with one last one.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Friday, Bitzer was named a first-team All-American by the American Hockey Coaches Association while Harms won the 2017 Senior CLASS Award.<\/span><\/p>\n

Both awards capped BSU’s 2016-17 season — one in which they finished 22-16-3, claimed their first-ever Western Collegiate Hockey Association title and took home the MacNaughton Cup.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bitzer, from Moorhead, became BSU’s first ACHA All-American since Matt Read in 2009-10 and just the second ACHA All-American overall in the Beavers’ Division I era. Andrew Murray was also named a USCHO All-American in 2004-05.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first-team honor is just another award to add to Bitzer’s ever-growing trophy case.<\/span><\/p>\n

The reigning WCHA player of the year was also the league’s goaltending champion and first-team All-WCHA goaltender. He ended his season with a 1.71 overall goals-against average — still best in the country — and six shutouts. He was also a top-10 finalist for the Hobey Baker Award and a top-five finalist for the Mike Richter Award, which goes to the best goaltender in Division I hockey.<\/span><\/p>\n

Denver’s Tanner Jaillet ended up claiming the Richter while Pioneers’ defenseman Will Butcher won the Hobey.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bitzer was BSU’s first finalist for the Richter, and its first finalist for the Hobey since Joel Otto in 1984.<\/span><\/p>\n

Harms, a senior, also took home a major accolade — the Senior CLASS Award.<\/span><\/p>\n

The award emphasizes both on-ice performance and off-ice character — “CLASS” is an acronym for “Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School” and goes to a senior who has notable achievements on the ice, in the classroom and in the community.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Steinbach, Manitoba, native recently completed his BSU career with 21 points (8g, 13a) in his senior season. In his career, he scored 88 points (33g-55a) in 141 games. He’s 12th on BSU’s all-time scoring list for the Division I era and is eighth in assists. Off the ice, he has a 4.0 grade point average as a business administration major with a minor in human performance. He also volunteered on campus and also with the Bemidji Boys and Girls Club.<\/span><\/p>\n

Harms is the first BSU player to win the award.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Brendan Harms personifies what it means to be a student-athlete,” BSU head coach Tom Serratore said in a press release. “He does everything the right way, always committed to his work in the classroom, in the community and on the ice. He leads by example and makes a positive impact with everything he does and everyone he meets. He is a great representative of Beaver Hockey and leaves Bemidji State and our community a better place.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Harms has already started his professional hockey career — late last month he signed with the Florida Everblades of the ECHL. He already has one point in four games.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BEMIDJI — On the penultimate day of the college hockey season, members of the Bemidji State men’s hockey team got to take one final (metaphorical) victory lap for their successful 2016-17 campaign. Junior goaltender Michael Bitzer continued to rack up more awards, while senior forward Brendan Harms closed out his BSU career with one last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-uncategorized","post_format-post-format-link"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27811"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27812,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27811\/revisions\/27812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bemidjistate.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}