Yesterday afternoon I saw one of the better played college hockey games of the seasons. The first game featured the upstart Bemidji State University Beavers of the CHA against the media darling Miami University RedHawks of the CCHA. Coming into the game it was one of the more talked about matchups of the season in college hockey. The game was a rematch of last season’s frozen four semi final from Washington D.C. in which the Miami RedHawks won 4-1. Yesterday the rematch went the BSU Beavers way as they won a hard fought 3-2 victory over the number one ranked team in the nation.
BSU overrated?
This season there has been a reoccurring theme; BSU has been ranked in the top ten the past three weeks and I have had many fans tell me that BSU was over rated and hadn’t played anyone and was unworthy of their high ranking. This past week all over the blogosphere and college hockey message boards I had read how Miami was finally going to show BSU that their record was over inflated and they would lay a smack down on the BSU Beavers. Now it’s the Beaver fans that are laughing. Yesterday’s 3-2 win by the Beavers is no fluke; the Beavers have an impressive 25-4-2 since January 24th, 2009. During that time the Beavers have beaten Notre Dame, Cornell, Minnesota and now Miami.
Are the Beavers still over rated?
Bemidji’s top line of Matt Read (10g-11a-21pts), Jordan George (6g-11a-17pts), Ian Lowe (4g-3a-7pts) is good enough to be on any teams top six in division 1 hockey. Matt Read leading the nation is points and is sixth in the nation in points per game. Read is also leading his team in total points.
Bemidji State are solid in net Dan Bakala (8-1-1, 1.6323 and .935 SV %) good for 6th nationally. The Beavers have a very good defensive core and tied with North Dakota for the top defensive team in the nation giving up an average of 1.69 goals per game. [College Hockey National Statistics]
So is BSU over rated? My answer is no until the Beavers are proven otherwise the evidence is there in the win column and statistically that they are a very good hockey team and just took down the number one rated team in the country. My question is; is Miami over rated? What do you think?
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