For the past few weeks, the top-ranked team in the country has lost at least once.
There’s no telling if this is because there’s extra pressure on the team at the top, or if teams playing No. 1 are especially excited at the chance to earn a marquee win, but one thing is certain: Those things aren’t going to be what motivates either team this weekend when No. 1 Minnesota State takes on Bemidji State.
For both MSU’s Mike Hastings and BSU’s Tom Serratore, it’s the top of the CCHA standings – not the top of the national polls – that matter this weekend.
“It’s about first place in my eyes,” Serratore said. “We’re looking at the points that are on the line, and where we’re at in the standings right now. That’s the important intangibles right now. Six points is a lot of points, especially against the No. 1 team in the conference.”
Hastings concurred.
“It seems like any time we’re playing Bemidji, we’re playing for playoff positioning. With both teams being where they’re at right now, we’re chasing Bemidji,” he said.
In what will be the final series before the holiday break for both teams, the first-place Mavericks head to Bemidji to take on the Beavers. MSU currently has 29 points, but has played 12 games, compared to BSU’s 24 from 10 games. So a Beavers sweep would give them a one-point lead over the Mavericks at top of the table going into the break, with room to expand said lead due to the games-in-hand.
“Right now, we’re five points up on them but they have two games in hand, so if they were able to win, we’d be behind them,” Hastings said. “It’s very important for us because we see them as a team that’s ahead of us.”
It’s yet another big series in what has been one of the most-played rivalries for both programs.
The Beavers and the Mavericks first met in 1974, when MSU was then known as Mankato State. They continued to meet numerous times at the NAIA, Division II and Division III levels – they were both members of the small-college National Collegiate Hockey Association – and when both the Beavers and the Mavericks elevated to Division I in the late 90s, they continued to play one another yearly despite being in different conferences.
But now that both teams have been in the same Division I conference for a decade, meetings have become even more frequent. It’s no longer the closest in-conference road trip for either team – St. Thomas joining the CCHA changed that – but it remains the most important.
“Because of where we are in proximity, they’re our closest and biggest rivals,” Hastings said. “Historically you’ve seen, whether we’re talking the last 10 games or the last 10 years, it seems like every time we get together it’s a battle and I don’t see any difference this time.”
Those matchups have frequently been what decides the league title. One memorable 2016 series saw the Beavers defeat the Mavericks 1-0 on the final day of the regular season to deny them sole possession of the MacNaughton Cup.
In 2020, the title race again went down to the final weekend of the season, with MSU needing to beat BSU 4-1 in the finale to clinch the title and prevent the second-place Beavers from winning the cup.
And last season, MSU clinched its record-setting fourth-consecutive MacNaughton with a 4-3 overtime win against the Beavers.
“Over the past few years, since I’ve been here, we’ve always had really intense weekends against them,” said Alex Adams, a senior forward for Bemidji State who is a Minnesota native. “Every year they have one of the best teams in the country and they always bring it every weekend.”
“They’re well-coached, they’re deep, and they’re No. 1 in the country for a reason,” Serratore said. “You look at their success over the years, they’ve earned everything that they have.”
And what about MSU’s No. 1 ranking?
The teams actually have played once before when the Mavericks were the nation’s top-ranked team: On Jan. 24, 2015, the Beavers topped MSU 3-1 to win the late North Star College Cup at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. It was a big win for the Beavers, but does anyone really remember who was ranked No. 1 the next week?
When asked about the rankings this week, the coaches and players also agreed: They don’t really matter much right now.
“Especially this early in the year, the rankings don’t really mean a whole lot, but it definitely goes to show how good of a team they have, and we respect how good they are,” Adams said of the Mavs. “But we play them hard every year no matter where they are in the rankings.”
“At the end of the day we’re all judged when the season’s over,” Hastings added. “We appreciate the recognition for what an opinion poll is, but if you look throughout college hockey there’s only one poll that everyone is concerned with, and that’s the last one.”
