2021–22 Bemidji State Beavers men's ice hockey season

The 2021–22 Bemidji State Beavers men's ice hockey season is the 66th season of play for the program. The represent Bemidji State University in the 2021–22 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season and for the first season in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA). The Beavers are coached by Tom Serratore, in his 21st season, and play their home games at Sanford Center.
==Season==
Bemidji State joined with six other members of the WCHA to restart the CCHA for the 2021–22 season. The Beavers began the year with a difficult string of games, going 1–3 against non-conference teams that would both make the tournament. While the losses put them near the bottom of the standings, BSU was able to stay in the polls and keep their NCAA hopes alive with a sweep of Northern Michigan. The Beaves spent November hovering around 20th in the polls but a couple of losses knocked them out for good come December.
The chief problem for Bemidji State during the first half of their season was inconsistent goaltending. Tom Serratore had used all three of his netminders at times but none performed at a high level. Eventually the team went with freshman Mattias Sholl as the primary starter but the young goalie still was getting used to the college game.
After losing four consecutive game to ranked teams in December, Bemidji State had dropped down to .500 but, because of the poor record against good teams (2-8 against eventual tournament teams), the Beavers had very little to buoy themselves in the standings. Both the offense and defense played well for a three game stretch, however, that ended rather abruptly; BSU went 1-8 over a month-long stretch, only once score more than 2 goals (the solitary win) and surrendering 5 goals in five separate games. The losing streak made it impossible for the Beavers to make the tournament without a conference championship and put them in jeopardy of having to play on the road in the quarterfinals. The only thing that arrested their free-fall was a date with the worst team that season, St. Thomas, who was playing its first season at the Division I level.
The uninspired play to end their year did not bode well for Bemidji State in the conference tournament. Despite their play of late, the team recovered in the postseason and the defense led them to a pair of victories over Bowling Green. The conference semifinal could hardly have gone better for the Beavers as the offense finally reappeared during the third period, potting 3 goals in 5 minutes to lead them to a stunning upset of Michigan Tech.
Bemidji State was now just one win shy of making the tournament but standing in their way was the best team in the country, Minnesota State. Despite the pressure from the Mavericks, Sholl played probably his best game of the season and held MSU off of the scoresheet for the first half of the game. The Beavers took a lead half way through the second but lost it on a power play goal just before the end of the period. After neither team was able to score in the third, Bemidji State found themselves in the improbable position of needing just one goal to continue their year. Unfortunately, just three minutes into overtime, Minnesota State scored and ended the Beaver's run. 50 minutes later, after the Mavericks had been awarded the trophy and both teams had returned to their locker rooms, the game-winning goal was called off after additional replay angles revealed that the puck had not crossed the goal-line between the pipes but instead gone under the goal cage. Bemidji State's season was given new life and, after a warm-up period for both teams, the game was resumed. Unfortunately, like a boxer on their last legs, the Beaver's comeback only lasted until the next shot. Two minutes after resuming play, the Mavericks scored their second overtime goal, this time with no controversy, and the Beavers were knocked out.
==Departures==
Zach Driscoll	Goaltender		Transferred to North Dakota
Ethan Gauer 	Defenseman		Transferred to St. Thomas
Darby Gula 	Defenseman		Left program (retired)
Nick Leitner 	Defenseman		Left program (retired)
Aaron Miller 	Forward 		Graduation (signed with Jokipojat)
Tyler Vold 	Defenseman		Graduation (retired)
==Recruiting==
Tony Follmer 	Defenseman		20	O'Fallon, MO
Donte Lawson 	Forward 		20	Taconite, MN
Jakub Lewandowski	Forward 		19	Torun, POL
Alexander Lundman	Forward 		20	Norrköping, SWE
William Magnuson 	Defenseman		19	Chaska, MN
Mattias Sholl 	Goaltender		20	Hermosa Beach, CA
Jere Väisänen 	Forward 		21	Espoo, FIN
==Roster==
As of September 13, 2021.
==Standings==
==Schedule and results==
|-
!colspan=12 style=";" | Exhibition
|-
!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season
|-
!colspan=12 style=";" | 
|- align="center" bgcolor="#e0e0e0"
|colspan=12|Bemidji State Won Series 2–1
==Scoring statistics==
 	C 	39	17 	30 	47 	41
 	LW 	39	16 	26 	42 	28
 	F 	37	17 	21 	38 	54
 	D 	38	7 	19 	26 	18
 	LW 	38	10 	12 	22 	8
 	F 	39	3 	16 	19 	8
 	C/LW 	39	12 	6 	18 	39
 	F 	34	8 	8 	16 	18
 	D 	38	5 	10 	15 	26
 	F 	37	6 	2 	8 	8
 	F 	36	4 	4 	8 	6
 	D 	39	3 	5 	8 	46
 	D 	39	2 	6 	8 	53
 	F 	21	1 	4 	5 	2
 	D 	34	0 	5 	5 	4
 	C/RW 	29	3 	1 	4 	6
 	F 	18	2 	2 	4 	6
 	F 	25	1 	2 	3 	8
 	D 	39	1 	2 	3 	31
 	F 	6 	0 	1 	1 	0
 	F 	15	0 	1 	1 	0
 	G 	26	0 	0 	0 	0
 	D 	3 	0 	0 	0 	0
 	G 	4 	0 	0 	0 	0
 	LW/RW	12	0 	0 	0 	2
 	G 	13	0 	0 	0 	0
 	RW 	14	0 	0 	0 	10
 	D 	26	0 	0 	0 	4
Bench	- 	- 	- 	- 	- 	4
Total	 	 	118	184	302	428
==Goaltending statistics==
 	26	1463	13	13	0	67 	629 	0	.904	2.75
 	14	712 	5 	6 	0	40 	320 	0	.889	3.37
 	4 	149 	1 	1 	0	10 	66 	0	.868	4.01
Empty Net	- 	23 	- 	- 	-	4 	- 	-	- 	-
Total 	39	2348	19	20	0	121	1015	0	.893	3.09
==Rankings==
Poll 	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week	Week
Poll 	Pre 	1 	2 	3 	4 	5 	6 	7 	8 	9 	10 	11 	12 	13 	14 	15 	16 	17 	18 	19 	20 	21 	22 	23 	24 	25 (Final)
USCHO.com	14 	15 	20 	19 	17 	20 	NR 	20 	20 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	- 	NR
USA Today	15 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR 	NR
Note: USCHO did not release a poll in week 24.
==References==
Category:Bemidji State Beavers men's ice hockey seasons
Bemidji State Beavers
Bemidji State Beavers