BEMIDJI – There have been 140 combined postseason games played between Bemidji State and Augustana men’s hockey players.
The Beavers, however, are doing the heavy lifting in that area.
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Seventeen BSU skaters and goalies have totaled 123 respective collegiate postseason games played, while AU has only 17.
“I think it can help,” junior forward Reilly Funk said. “You try and draw on anything, and I think they’re going to draw on having that fresh, first-year-in-the-league mentality. Every team draws on something. We can rely on experience and having an idea in our minds of doing what we have to do to get the job done. I think over the last few weeks we learned how we needed to play.”
After Augustana’s 2023-24 inaugural season, CCHA programs unanimously voted to promote the Vikings to a full league member one year early. While the league’s other eight institutions played 26 CCHA games, AU played 16, due to its inability to get out of its nonconference contracts.
Despite this being Augustana’s first season with Mason Cup Playoffs eligibility, it has some postseason experience. Uula Ruikka played seven playoff games for Providence, while Luke Mpobley played in six for Clarkson. Evan McIntyre, Brady Ziemer and Owen Baumgartner have all played in at least one playoff game for their previous schools.
“I’ll tell you right now, look at their team,” BSU head coach Tom Serratore said. “We’re not much older than them with all of the guys they got out of the portal. They’re not a two-year team with the Ruikkas of the world, the Ziemers of the world, the McIntyres of the world, the Mobleys of the world, the (Payton) Matsuis of the world.”
AU head coach Garrett Raboin is used to adding experience along the way. Augustana has navigated its first experiences for two years, with more ahead of it as it kicks off its first home playoff series at 7:07 p.m. on Friday.
“It can be a strength,” Raboin said. “If you have it, it’s great, but if you don’t, I think there’s a youthful energy and an excitement that comes with that. Listen, our group is truly unique. Everything we’ve done has been uncomfortable, unfamiliar. Our guys, having never been in a playoff or never done something, that’s what they’ve run into nearly every week for the last two years, so as uncommon or unfamiliar as it is, it’s actually probably pretty familiar for our group, which is exciting.”
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Bemidji State seniors and fifth-years have made two separate runs to the Mason Cup Playoffs title game, once in 2022 and again last year. Eric Martin leads BSU with 12 playoff games played, with three more players at 11.
But Serratore doesn’t put much weight into the experience edge the Beavers have over the Vikings.
“At the end of the day, hockey’s hockey,” Serratore said. “Can you draw back from certain experiences? Probably a little bit, but hockey’s hockey. They’re the home team and they’re the ones who, over the course of the year, earned the right to be the home team. I don’t think (experience) is that big of a deal. I just think there’s such a small margin of error.
“One thing I tell the guys, we’re all the same animal in this league. I don’t think (experience) is that big of a deal. The biggest things are the things we look at during the regular season – goaltending, special teams, faceoffs, all of those types of things. Those are the biggest X-factors in the playoffs.”
Most intriguing matchup
One area that could decide the best-of-three series at Midco Arena is the Beavers’ power play versus the Vikings’ penalty kill.
Bemidji State holds the league’s third-highest power-play percentage at 24.5%, and it’s been hot as of late. BSU has scored a power-play goal in five of its last six games. However, four of those games were against bottom-five CCHA penalty kills.
“The bottom line of anything is execution,” Serratore said. “It might not be the first pass, but it’s the second pass or the third pass and making good reads with quick sticks and puck recoveries. It’s just the details. We always think of power plays as making the last play, but a lot of it goes into all of the work that transpires to make the last play, and we’ve been doing a good job with those things.”
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Augustana poses a different kind of challenge. The Vikings boast the league’s top penalty kill, with a success rate of 84.6% in 16 games.
“It goes back to discipline,” Raboin said. “Obviously, we don’t want to give their power play many opportunities. I think we have to stay tight. We have to stay compact, and we can’t get exposed with seams. They do a really good job at the net front. They find pucks in and around that slot area.
“There’s confidence with their power play. There’s a rhythm their power play has, so I think it’s essential that we win the opening face-off and send it 200 feet because statistics have shown that if you can do that, the power play percentages go way down. Faceoffs are going to be extremely important, especially on the penalty kill.”
Bemidji State’s third line has been especially impactful on the man advantage. Jackson Jutting and Kasper Magnussen are tied for third in the CCHA with six power-play goals each, while Noah Quinn has three in just 17 games.
Jutting is also the CCHA’s best faceoff taker, winning 406 of his 799 draws. Jutting has taken 104 more faceoffs this season than the next most in the league.
“I think we’ve got two groups who go out there and want to score and take advantage of our opportunity,” Funk said. “We move the puck around well and bring pucks to the net. That’s what we were lacking earlier in the year when we were struggling. … Good things happen when you’re getting pucks to the net.”
Home cooking?
Home-ice advantage is something four CCHA teams get to open the Mason Cup Playoffs and something the other five teams want.
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But to the dismay of Funk, who said he feels better in home games, Bemidji State has been a tougher team to beat on the road this season. The Beavers are 7-8-3 away from the Sanford Center and are 13-16-5 overall.
“It’s another weird stat for this team this year,” Funk said. “Personally, I love playing at home. You go through the same routine and you get comfortable with it. Maybe it’s just that when you go on the road, you want to play spoiler. It’s fun to go into a big atmosphere, play a little spoiler and send that crowd home disappointed, and I think that’s galvanized this group.”
BSU is also averaging 3.0 goals per game on the road compared to 1.94 at the Sanford Center this season.
Raboin expects the best version of Bemidji State to show up to Sioux Falls this weekend.
“I think the big thing with coach Serratore — 400 wins obviously, a ton of respect for him and Travis Winter and his staff,” he said. “You look at this year’s team, they’re returning a lot of players off that MacNaughton Cup team, led by a veteran group, strong goaltending, and you have to think this time of year, probably about three weeks ago, that there was a switch that flipped internally for this group.
“They felt it was time to raise their level. They’ve done so. They’re playing their best hockey late in the year. They have that experience, which you can’t put a price on, so everything we get, we’re going to have to earn this weekend.”
Bemidji State is 2-2 against Augustana all time. Earlier this season, the Beavers pulled out a 4-3 overtime win before the Vikings rebounded for a 5-1 victory to earn a series split at Midco Arena Nov. 8-9.
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Augustana finished second in the CCHA (17-11-4, 9-5-2 CCHA) with a points percentage of .625 in 16 games.
“It’s a well-earned second-place finish,” Serratore said. “They had a heck of a year, not only in the league but overall. It’s a tough place to play. If you look at the games we played at Augustana in November … we know what we’re in for. At the end of the day, it’s the playoffs. It’s a new season, it’s exciting – all that jazz we like talking about.”
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