Thanks to COVID-19 protocols within their originally scheduled opponents -- Lake Superior State for BSU and Alabama Huntsville for No. 2/3 Minnesota State -- the Western Collegiate Hockey Association’s Minnesota contingent will meet for the fourth time in two months this Friday at the Sanford Center. This week’s nonconference contest is a makeup of a postponed Nov. 23 matchup that was originally to be played the day after the teams’ season opener, a 5-0 MSU win.
“We just want to keep playing, and that’s the biggest thing,” Beavers head coach Tom Serratore said. “We both obviously couldn’t play because of our situations this weekend. Just to be able to play is good for our guys.”
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With nine games postponed or canceled so far, the team has gotten used to having schedule changes on short notice. As sophomore defenseman Kyle Looft noted, it’s easier to deal with when the COVID-19 issues are on the other team, which has been the case for BSU thus far.
“Instead of taking two weeks off, we’re able to practice,” Looft said. “It is frustrating a little bit, but you can’t do anything about it. Obviously other teams aren’t trying to go get COVID, so it’s not like we’re super mad about it or anything.”
Bemidji State is 0-2-1 in three nonconference games against Minnesota State this season, and the teams are set to meet twice more in league play next month. Since their last encounter a month ago, BSU (5-4-2, 1-1-0 WCHA) has turned the corner after a slow start and is now 4-1-1 in their last six games, including three straight victories over a top-10 Bowling Green team, with wins of 2-1 and 3-1 last week. Looft and goalie Zach Driscoll were named WCHA defenseman and goaltender of the week for their performances in the series.
“Our confidence is pretty high, but we also know there’s a lot more work to do,” Looft said.
There’s always plenty of buzz in the building whenever the Beavers and Mavericks (9-1-1, 6-0-0 WCHA) mix it up, though it hasn’t been quite the same without fans in attendance for their meetings this year, as will again be the case this Friday.
“It was weird because normally we’re used to having a ton of fans in the stands for those games,” Looft said. “It’s definitely been different, but we’re both still very competitive teams.”
The number of games called off due to COVID-19 reasons keeps piling up across college hockey. Thirty games involving WCHA teams have been postponed or canceled so far this season.
Bowling Green, at 14-4-0 in 18 games, has benefited from being one of the few teams without a game postponed or canceled yet.
“I said this before the season started: Whoever can survive COVID is going to be in good shape at the end of the year,” Serratore said.
The WCHA has not yet announced what the playoff format will look like come March. The regular season is scheduled to wrap up the weekend of March 5-6.
“We need to get on this. We need to have a plan,” Serratore said of what the WCHA postseason might look like. “We probably need to do a little more on that, there's no question. We’ve talked about certain things and we have ideas.
“But… you need to plan for more pauses. This is not the first (and) it’s not going to be the last. And that’s all the leagues, by the way. That’s the one thing we’ve all got to make sure we’re diligent with is making sure that we have a plan, because you want to try to get as many conference games in as you possibly can.”
At a glance
Who: BSU vs. Minnesota State
Where: Sanford Center
When: 4:07 p.m. Friday
Radio: Beaver Radio Network/92.1 FM
Web stream: FloHockey.tv
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