WCHA 2025-26 previews: Bemidji State Beavers
Head coach Amber Fryklund has a dynamic scorer on her young roster and is looking to climb up the conference standings
Ahead of WCHA conference play beginning this weekend, Badger Breakaway is previewing each of the eight teams in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. The first team in the series, which will be published in reverse order of the 2024-25 season’s final conference standings, also happens to be the Wisconsin Badgers’ season-opening opponent: the Bemidji State Beavers.
Bemidji State and Wisconsin women’s hockey are not exactly evenly matched teams. When Wisconsin made its most recent road trip to Bemidji, the Beavers took a lead over the Badgers for the first time in nearly three years. Still, Wisconsin went on to win 6-1. In fact, the Badgers have won 22 straight over the Beavers.
Perhaps those are not the best details to give away at the top, hoping readers will continue scrolling. Alas.
Nonetheless, the Beavers are undeniably trending upward under the leadership of a still relatively new head coach, who also happens to be the best player and all-time leading goal scorer in the history of her program.
Bemidji State and Wisconsin open play on Friday, September 26th, in Bemidji at 6:00 p.m.
Bemidji State Beavers preview, at a glance
WCHA returning production spreadsheet
2024-25 record: 6-30-1, 4-24-0 WCHA
2024-25 WCHA finish: 8th of 8
2024-25 postseason: Swept 2-0 in WCHA conference tournament quarterfinal by Wisconsin
2025-26 WCHA Preseason Coaches Poll prediction: 8th
2025-26 preseason national polls: unranked
Preseason All-WCHA honorees: None (forward Morgan Smith receiving votes)
Returning production (conference rank)
Goals: 45 (T-6th)
Points: 102 (6th)
Goals percentage: 80.36% (2nd)
Points percentage: 74.45% (2nd)
Returning skaters games played percentage: 59.52% (4th)
Goalie starts returning percentage: 89.19% (2nd)
Class breakdown
8 rookies
7 sophomores
9 juniors
3 seniors (T-7th)
Beavers bring back a lot of the little they had
BSU’s numbers perfectly exemplify the importance of looking at both the raw totals and percentages of returning production. The Beavers return fewer than 50 goals scored from last season’s roster, but the personnel Bemidji did return has some promise.
Bemidji finished last season scoring a mere 1.51 goals per game, the sixth-fewest of any team in the country and by far the fewest of any in the WCHA. BSU is not, however, in a position where it has lost the little offense it had last season. Quite the opposite, in fact.
Seven of the Beavers’ top nine scorers return to Bemidji this season, including their four leading point-getters. Among that group are five of head coach Amber Fryklund’s top six forwards, including sophomore Morgan Smith.
Smith played herself into the top-line center spot for BSU as a rookie. The Winnipeg native led the Beavers with 11 goals and nine assists. Now, Fryklund is relying on her standout sophomore to lead on and off the ice.
“[Smith] absolutely just had such a great first year in our league,” Fryklund said. “As everyone knows, it’s hard in our league to come in as a first-year and make an impact. That she did is just a tribute to the person she is. She works hard off the ice, on the ice, she’s a great human. She’s a great leader. She’s an assistant captain for us this year as a sophomore.
“It just speaks to who she is as a person and the commitment she has to making herself better, but also making our team better.”
It was high praise for the first Bemidji State player to receive preseason All-WCHA votes since 2019.
“We obviously are going to rely on her this year. She’s going to make a big impact on our program,” Fryklund continued. “We’re really excited about her. You can tell she put in the work this summer. She’s got an extra step right now, and she has a lot of energy right now to continue to make an impact in our league.”
Measuring progress from the bottom of a deep league
Despite all that deserved praise for Smith, second-year head coach Fryklund is standing behind the bench of the youngest team in the league, looking up the standings at all seven other programs.
In a league of Badgers, Bulldogs, and Buckeyes, it is no easy task for a Beaver to find its way upstream.
“Looking at our progress last year that we made statistically. We scored more goals, [and] had less goals against,” Fryklund pointed to as signs of progress.
BSU allowed an entire goal fewer per game, improving from 5.03 to 4.00 surrendered last season, compared to the 2023-24 campaign. Credit for improving that mark goes to Bemidji’s skaters and embattled goaltending staff.
Credit goes to the Beavers’ skaters for allowing 176 fewer shots on goal in 2024-25 despite playing an additional game.
Perhaps more significant credit for that defensive improvement goes to Kaitlin Groess, who, as a rookie in 2024-25, served as Bemidji’s starting goaltender down the stretch due to injuries to sophomore Eva Filippova and graduate student Josie Bothun. Bothun ultimately opted to medically retire after undergoing multiple hip surgeries. Filippova returns to Bemidji for her junior year, but will miss significant time to start the season with a lower-body injury.
Beyond the simple path of improvement by scoring more goals and allowing fewer than the opponent, Fryklund wants to see her team continue to improve situationally. She pointed to the desire to see her team continue to improve on the power play, which was the least effective unit in the country two seasons ago, but jumped 15 spots last year. Next, the Beavers must improve their penalty kill. BSU finished as a bottom-two PK nationally each of the past two years.
“The expectation that we have is that we continue to make progress in those areas, that we continue to focus on areas that we can control,” Fryklund explained. “And then, hopefully, that leads to the outcomes that we want and that we’re expected to have this year.
“We’re really looking forward to, again, another opportunity to make another jump this year for our team and continue to move up the standings in our league.”