2008-09 Bemidji State Team Outlook
- Bemidji State is entering its 10th year of existence and will be celebrating all season long during the 2008-09 season, even coming up with a special logo just for the occasion. The Beavers are 87-215-32 (.356) in their nine-year history, and have a 51-158-23 (.269) mark all-time in WCHA play. They will be looking to build on that win percentage this year with a lot of young talent and returning stars.
- The BSU coaching staff will have the daunting task this season of trying to replace arguably the best goaltender in the country from a year ago in Emily Brookshaw. The Beavers have three incoming freshmen that will compete for the starting job throughout the season in Eri Kiribuchi (Prague, Czech Republic), Zuzana Tomcikova (Bratislava, Slovakia) and Alana McElhinney (Calgary, Alberta).
- Bemidji State returns two seniors from last year's squad. The staunch defensive attack will be captained by Brooke Collins (Pilot Mound, Manitoba), who returns after scoring two goals with one assist while playing all 36 games a year ago. Center Monica Rawlings (Maplewood, Minn.) will look to build on a career year that saw her double her career point total with four assists. She has two career goals and six assists entering the 2008-09 campaign, giving her eight points during her first three seasons donning the green and white.
- The experienced and highly talented junior class is four-women strong. Defender Ashley Leopold (Afton, Minn.) is the highest returning scorer from this class, entering the season with three goals and nine assists for 12 points. She had a career season in 2007-08 as she scored seven points (1-6=7). The versatile Franny Dorr (Roseville, Minn.) began last year playing defense, but moved to forward when injuries became a problem. She welcomed the move and finished the season with two goals and two assists as she anchored the second forward line for the last half of the year. She now has five career goals and three assists, good for eight points. Defender Jackie Robertson (Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) played in all 36 games a season ago and notched her first two career points (1-1=2). She will be on the top two defensive pairings all season and will be called upon once again to provide depth and leadership on the back line. Forward Nicole Rawlings (Maplewood, Minn.) added to her career point total with an assist last year, giving her three career points (1-2=3). She will be looked upon to provide leadership and experience to this year's squad that is loaded with young talent.
- The best goal scorers on the team anchor the fiercely competitive sophomore squad. This group is led by forwards Annie Bauerfeld (Woodbury, Minn.) and Erin Cody (Roseville, Minn.). The two Beavers were the only two to hit double-digits in scoring last year, with Bauerfeld recording five goals and five assists for 10 points, and Cody notching four goals and six assists for 10 points. Forward Eva Schwaerzler (Dornbirn, Austria) returns after recording two goals and three assists for five points, forward Erin Johnson (Farmington, Minn.) and defender Lexy Parenteau (Franconia, Minn.) each scored one goal and three assists for four points, and forward Carissa Ketcher (Mound Westonka, Minn.) scored her first career goal in the final home game of the season.
- Bemidji State has added 10 players to the roster for the 2008-09 season, giving the Beavers an influx of young talented players for the upcoming season. The newcomers to the team include five forwards, three goalies and two defenders. These players will not only be vying for the top goalie spot, but will also be looking to pump some offense into a team that struggled to find the back of the net last season. BSU averaged a little more than one goal a game last year, but, along with the high-scoring sophomore class and some wily veterans, that number should increase this year.
- Bemidji State is returning 12 players and 60 percent of its scoring from a year ago, which includes the top two scorers (Annie Bauerfeld and Erin Cody) and six of the top 11 from last season. The Beavers will try to improve on their 1.06 goals per game average, and will look to decrease their 3.19 goals allowed per game average.
- Although BSU was unable to find a victory on the road last year (0-17-1), the team faired much better at home, earning four wins and two ties at John Glas Fieldhouse (4-12-2). The Beavers will try to find a few wins in non-conference play away from the Glas this season as they travel to Wayne State and Robert Morris.
- The Beavers lost 14 players from a season ago, and none bigger than Emily Brookshaw. Brookshaw was a member of the All-WCHA Third Team and was named the USCHO.com Division I Defensive Player of the Week on two separate occasions last year, the only player in the country who could boast such a feat. BSU also lost Tara Hiscock and Haley Balcom, who both played in a record 143 games. Along with Hiscock, Bemidji State will be looking to replace three other players who were in the top seven on the team in scoring from a year ago. Julie Rising, Lisa Kissick and Jessica Pullar were all among the team-leaders in scoring from last year but are no longer with the team.
- Collins will be looking to etch her name even further into Bemidji State lore this season, as she will be looking to climb higher up the charts as a defenseman at BSU. She is currently tied for fourth in school history in goals scored by a defenseman with five. Her 18 career assists puts her in fourth place on the all-time defensive list, one shy of tying Haley Balcom and Sarah Zuelke for second place. She is also in fifth place in points scored by a defenseman in school history with 23, one behind Balcom for fourth. She scored 16 points in the 2005-06 season, which was the fifth-most ever by a defenseman in a single season in BSU history, and she will be looking to have an even better season this year.
- Not only is Collins moving up the defensive scoring charts, she is also slated to break another Bemidji State school record. Last season, Tara Hiscock and Balcom broke Mandy Bambrough's record for most games played in a career when they played in their 143rd and final game. Collins enters the season with 108 career games played, and she has never missed a game in her three-year career. BSU is scheduled to play a minimum of 36 games, and if she were to stay healthy for the whole season, that would put her at 144 games played, giving her the all-time school record by one.
- Collins also has a chance to break another school record, this one being for the most consecutive games played, which stands at 135 set by three former Beavers. Her current position of 108 consecutive games played puts her in seventh place on the list, and if she plays in every contest this year she'll break this record Jan. 31 at North Dakota.
- The new and improved Bemidji State roster will look to build on last year's squad that went 4-29-3 overall and 1-25-2 in conference play. One of the positives from the 2007-08 team was that BSU went 3-4-1 against non-conference opponents. The Beavers are slated to travel to Wayne State and Robert Morris Oct. 3-4 and Jan. 2-3, respectively. BSU was also 3-1-0 last year when stepping outside of WCHA action, and will look to sweep the lone non-conference home series against Northeastern Oct. 10-11.
- BSU will have two exhibition games at home this year on Sept. 26-27. The first game will be the annual meeting between the Beavers and the University of Manitoba. After the game with the Bison BSU will play Team USA in a contest that should provide a great test for a young Bemidji State squad before the beginning of what will prove to be another tough season schedule-wise.
- The Beavers will compete in the first ever U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame game Oct. 18 against the University of Wisconsin. The game will be played at the Hippodrome in Eveleth, Minn., with the Beavers as the home team. This will be the third time in as many years that BSU has matched up against the Badgers in a contest away from one of the team's regular home venues. The Beavers traveled to Madison each of the past two seasons and played the second game of the two-game sets with UW at the Eagle's Nest in Verona, Wisc. This will also be the second time in as many years that Bemidji State has played a home contest at an arena other than John Glas Fieldhouse. Last season the team traveled to Grand Rapids, Minn., to take on Robert Morris University. The Beavers lost that game 1-0.
- The Beavers can look to some positive statistics heading into this season. For starters, BSU was 3-2-0 when leading after the period and 4-0-0 when leading after two. Bemidji State was also 4-4-0 when scoring first. Some numbers the team will be looking to improve on are its 5-for-117 (.043) performance on the power play and its 105-for-132 (.795) numbers on the penalty kill.
- Steve Sertich is entering his third year as head coach at Bemidji State. After the 2008-09 season, Sertich will move into a tie with Ruthann Cantile as the second-longest tenured coach at BSU. Former coach Bruce Olson has coached the most years at Bemidji State, as he led the Beavers to a 27-80-13 record from 2002-05. Sertich led the team to an 11-20-5 record in his first season, and the team accumulated 22 points in the conference, its most ever in the nine-year history of the program. He is now 15-49-8 overall as head coach at Bemidji State and 10-40-6 in conference play. If Sertich can lead his team to 14 victories this season, he will become the all-time winningest coach in Bemidji State history.
- After selecting a new head coach two seasons ago and adding two assistants to the coaching staff last year, this year there will be no changes to the coaching staff. Steve Sertich enters his third season at the helm with assistant coaches Heather Farrell and Shane Veenker both entering their second seasons with the Beavers. Chris Kawano, graduate assistant volunteer goalies coach, is also returning for his second year.
- The Beavers have 12 returning letterwinners this season and 10 newcomers. They also lost 13 letterwinners from last season.
