Save for freshmen, every Bemidji State men’s hockey skater has played in a collegiate postseason game.
Except for Noah Quinn.
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When the Beavers went on their run to the Mason Cup Playoffs championship a year ago, Quinn watched from the club-level seating at the Sanford Center. A team jam-packed with veterans was out of room for the then-freshman forward out of Nelson, British Columbia.
“At the end of the day, it was a tough year,” Quinn said. “But we were championship team and we were winning, so whatever we could do that was best for the team was something I was happy to be a part of.”
Quinn wanted more out of his rookie season.
He finished his campaign with one goal in 19 games – his only point. And with the visible chemistry on BSU’s fourth line between Donte Lawson, Jake McLean and Rhys Chiddenton, opportunities to break through were few and far between.
But a lot can change in a year.
Now a sophomore, Quinn has more than caught up to speed. In 17 games this season he has five goals and an assist. His most recent point kept the Beavers out of the basement of the CCHA.
Quinn’s power-play goal six and a half minutes into the third period tied the game for Bemidji State on the road against No. 14 Minnesota State. It pushed the Beavers to a 1-1 tie and a two-point night over the Mavericks.
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BSU needed both of those points to avoid slipping to eighth place and a first-round series against MSU.
Quinn’s boost to Bemidji State’s lineup has been welcomed for a team trying to find some consistency in the second half. Not only has he garnered power play minutes, he’s also become immovable on the Beavers’ third line alongside Jackson Jutting and Kasper Magnussen.
“He’s doing a good job on the power play, I can tell you right now,” head coach Tom Serratore said. “Quinner is also playing with a lot of confidence. He’s stabilized that line with Jutts and Kasper, and he’s added that physical dimension to his game where now he’s playing with a lot more depth. I told him that when he plays with more depth, his overall game improves. He’s a threat, and I really like Quinner’s mindset right now.”
Finding Bemidji
While playing U18s with the Kootenay Ice, Quinn already had connections to Bemidji before a former Beavers assistant coach came to scout him in person.
“It was just a Wednesday game and Mike Gibbons was there,” Quinn said. “I chatted with him after, and some (former Beavers) from back home are from where I’m from. Ross Armour and Reece Hunt came here too, so I was familiar with Bemidji and where it was on the map. It kind of just took off from there.”
Armour, a native of Trail, British Columbia, graduated from Bemidji State in 2023. He played in three seasons with the Savannah Ghost Pirates in the ECHL before moving to Germany to play with EC Bad Nauheim in the DEL2.
Hunt, another Nelson native, was part of the BSU women’s hockey program from 2019 to 2023 before playing her final collegiate season with Minnesota Duluth in 2024-25.
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Both Hunt and Armour played in Kootenay.
“I fell in love with the place, and the rest was history,” Quinn said of BSU. “It’s super helpful knowing the people that have been here and can give you a story of how they enjoyed Bemidji State. They both had nothing but great things to say. It definitely made my choice a little easier.”
Quinn played his final season in Kootenay in 2019-20, finishing with 21 goals and 24 assists in 40 games. He then played three seasons with the Cranbrook Bucks in the BCHL, finishing his final season with 22 goals and 31 assists in 58 games.
Then it was time for Quinn to make the jump to the NCAA ranks. He went from an alternate captain in Cranbrook to the bottom of the totem pole in Bemidji, just as most freshmen do in their respective rookie seasons.
“A lot of guys are the big dog on their juniors teams, no matter where you come from,” BSU junior forward Reilly Funk said. “Whether it be the USHL or in Canada, and I’ve played in both, but you come from a place where you’ve had a lot of success. Then you don’t get a lot of ice time right away in college, depending on your situation. But you have to realize that you can control your situation.
“It might not be right away, it might not even be the next year. For me, it took some time to get my footing in college hockey. For Quinner, he’s found something and he’s run with it, and I love to see it.”
What changed?
Coming into his sophomore year, Quinn was still on the outside looking in.
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He played in just four games in the first two months of this season. He didn’t play in back-to-back games in a series this season until Jan. 10-11 at Bowling Green.
Since then, Quinn has been left out of the lineup only three times. He’s played in seven straight games to end the season and has notched five of his six points.
“There’s a lot of ups and downs, but you have to stick with it,” Quinn said. “Compared to the first half of the season, it was definitely a challenge. You just have to take it day by day and game by game. It’s paying off a little bit here, I’m getting some success. But the job’s not done yet.”
Quinn was challenged by his coaching staff to add a layer of grit to his game that wasn’t there last year.
“That was an expectation from the coaching staff to him,” Serratore said. “I think it’s everybody. I expect the same out of all of my guys. There’s just an expectation of how to play or what to do, and I don’t care if you’re small.
“The smallest guy on the team has to have as much grit as the biggest. At the end of the day, the size of your heart, your guts and your compete level are the same. There might be different types of physically and compete for little guys, medium guys and big guys, but I expect the same out of all of them.”
Quinn isn’t exactly small. At 6-foot-1, 176 pounds, he is tied for the fourth-tallest skater on the team and the 17th-heaviest. However, he also recognized he needed more toughness in his toolkit.
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“I think when you can be physical, you’re on the inside of the game all of the time,” Quinn said. “You’re in the game. Whenever you can be physical and bang bodies, it’s super helpful. It’s that sacrifice stat that not many people look at but it’s super important on a game-to-game basis.”
Quinn’s repertoire will keep growing this weekend as the Beavers will take on Augustana in a best-of-three quarterfinal series in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It’ll be Quinn’s first taste of collegiate postseason hockey.
“Every week I was itching to get into the lineup (last season)” Quinn said. “At the end of the day, I’m happy with where I’m at but I’m still not satisfied with where I’m at. The work paid off from last year, and I’m just looking forward to seeing what we can do in the playoffs. … It’s just about being confident in myself and knowing why I’m here in the first place”
