From The Rink Live
By Rob Beer
MINOT, N.D. — Minot State athletic director Kevin Forde understands the hype and curiosity surrounding his American Collegiate Hockey Association men’s team. The Beavers are set to play two ranked NCHC teams in Colorado College on Dec. 29 and Denver on Dec. 30.
“Those two are household names in the college hockey world and they’re two of the most established and prominent universities in the country in Division I hockey,” Minot State President Steven Shirley said.
So when these games were announced early, Forde said people began questioning the direction of the Minot State program.
“That’s the first thing people thought,” Forde said. “‘Oh, they’re getting ready to make the move to Division I.’ And we have not had any kind of serious conversations about that. We’re here. We feel like [the ACHA] is a good level for us. This is good competition for us at this point in time.
“Never say never, but right now this is where we want to be for sure.”
While the rest of Minot State’s athletic department plays at the NCAA Division II level with NSIC foes Bemidji State, Augustana, St. Cloud State and Minnesota Duluth all fielding Division I hockey, the Beavers men’s and women’s hockey programs are succeeding at the ACHA level.
Shirley said that isn’t about to change.
“That is not on the current radar, that’s not on the horizon as we sit here right now,” Shirley told The Rink Live in his second-floor office inside the Administration building on campus. “The reality of that dollars and cents wise is a massive one.”
Mike Vanhove, a superfan of sorts of the Beavers hockey programs, was sitting at a high-top table while watching Minot State play the University of Mary recently.
“I think its a good step for the program,” Vanhove said of playing the Colorado schools.
Vanhove said the Beavers are fortunate to have several high-end players who, in a different scenario, may have made Division I rosters. But a move to Division I as a team has a roadblock.
“As Minot hockey fans, it’s a dream, but it’s a financial hurdle at this point,” he said.
The timing was right late last season for Denver coach David Carle to reach out to MSU head coach Wyatt Waselenchuk. When the games were announced, the Beavers were just three weeks away from winning the ACHA Division I championship for the third time in school history.
A few text messages were exchanged before Waselenchuk discussed the exhibition game scenario with Forde. Soon after, Colorado College got into the mix as well.
“Wyatt came to me and asked me if it was something I think we should pursue and I said, ‘Yes, we absolutely can make this happen,’” Forde recalled. “Let’s do it.”
“As big of an honor as it is, we still have to be a little more budget conscious than some of those teams,” Waselenchuk said. “So, it was a little easier of a sell from an athletic department knowing we were going there to play two games.”
Besides the addition of Colorado College, Waselenchuk said there was some talk of playing Air Force, but a three-in-three scenario was probably too much to ask from the Beavers.
Minot State, again the No. 1 team in ACHA Division I, will go into Colorado College with a 17-4-1 record. Meanwhile, the 20th-ranked Tigers (9-6-1) are coming off back-to-back 3-2 overtime wins against then top-ranked North Dakota. Denver, meanwhile, is 12-5-1 and ranked fifth in the country in both national polls.
Colorado College has three NHL Draft picks on its roster. Noah Laba (Rangers) is tied with Gleb Veremyev for the team lead with seven goals — and both had game-winners in the recent series against UND. Veremyev leads the team with 13 points and Laba has 12. Zaccharya Wiscond (Kraken) has six points and freshman Klavs Veinbergs (Lightning) has not played this season.
Meanwhile, Denver has 12 NHL picks, led by Massimo Rizzo (Flyers), who has a Division I-leading 31 points. Jack Devine (Panthers) leads the Pioneers and the nation with 15 goals. Other draftees include Garrett Brown (Jets), Tristan Broz (Penguins), Shai Buium (Red Wings), Sam Harris (Canadiens), Lorenz Reiger (Wild), Matikka Miko (Coyotes), Aiden Thompson (Blackhawks) and Jared Wright (Kings).
For Minot State, 19 of the 23 players on the roster are Canadian, as is Waselenchuck, a former goaltender for the Beavers. Christian Kadolph (Brainerd, Minn.) leads the team with 27 points and Reid Arnold (Yorkton, Saskachewan) has 13 goals.
“I want to hype the game as much as I can, but quite honestly, it’s about us,” said Colorado College coach Kris Mayotte, who added the Tigers staff will still go through its pre-game routine of scouting the Beavers.
Waselenchuk, minutes after his team’s last game against the University of Mary, knows what the Beavers are stepping into.
“A lot more speed than tonight, that’s for sure,” he said. “We’re not jaded in a sense of, we’re playing teams with a ton of NHL draft picks and two top-notch Division I programs.”
He simply wants to see effort, whether that be forechecking, hustling back to the net and staying out of the penalty box.
“We’re gonna give up some on the skill side of the puck, but we’re gonna go in and work and that’s always been our team identity, right?”
It’s not a club team
Minot State made a decision a handful of years ago to fully fund its ACHA hockey programs and roll them into the athletic department.
“It wasn’t always like that,” Shirley said. “Some years back it was treated as more of just a club program, and it had club adviser and those kinds of things.”
So the word “club team” is a no-no among the higher-tier teams in the ACHA.
“We treat this as a varsity program, and these kids get treated really, really well, but we hold them to a high standard and our leadership group is everything,” Waselenchuk said. “As a coach, I can’t hold scholarship money or anything over their head to have them get moving in the right direction.”
Money-wise, Forde said, the team has a “healthy budget” for an ACHA team. That goes for, among obvious expenses like coaching salaries, travel and uniforms, but also covers a certain amount of players’ sticks.
“Resource-wise and the way we treat the program, and the facility we play in, the experience our students have, I think you would hold it up against any program in the country at that level,” Shirley said.
The Beavers share Maysa Arena, a three-sheet complex in the city’s southwest corner, with the NAHL’s Minotauros. Its featured sheet, the Pepsi Rink, holds just shy of 2,000 with a large concourse and several amenities.
Minot State has competed as an independent, but in November it was announced that the Beavers will join the Midwest College Hockey conference next season. The University of Mary and Jamestown are already MCH members.
“While being an independent team has had its advantages, there is nothing like having the opportunity to also compete for a conference championship,” Forde said.
Big-time exposure
The games against Colorado College and Denver will provide a tremendous opportunity to showcase Minot State, the school brass said.
“Anytime you can play a team like CC or Denver, especially in hockey, it’s going to make an impression for the viewers of hockey and people who enjoy hockey understand how big of deal this is for recruiting,” Forde said, “and for the experience of our guys to go against another level of competition.”
Because there’s a number of alumni residing in the Denver area, Minot State plans to hold an alumni event before the Pioneers game, Shirley said. With direct flights to Denver out of Minot International Airport, he also expects a decent turnout of parents and fans to make the trip.
“We know they’re going to have a roster that is talented and it should be a good environment,” Mayotte said. “The rumor is that it’s sold out, so it should be an exciting game.”
Forde said the school won’t waste the opportunity to showcase Minot State, saying, “You gotta make hay while you can, right?” Other Minot State teams, such as the men’s basketball squad, have played Division I teams in exhibition games in years past.
“If we just do these two games, and then we don’t do anything for the next five to 10 years, that’s not going to do us any good,” Forde said. “We’ve got to continue this kind of momentum if you will, to try to get more of our teams to play these kind of exhibitions to get Minot State University out there more in the mainstream.”
The players, too, understand the importance.
“We just got to play them hard and eventually I feel like more teams can eventually start playing Division I teams, just for like exhibitions,” sophomore forward Sheldin Howard of Thompson, Manitoba, said. “I think it’s great for the whole league that we’re doing this.”
ACHA vs. D-I competition
NCAA Division I teams have a 23-2 record against ACHA teams with a score differential of 153-26. The ACHA team failed to score in nine of those 25 contests, dating back to the 2012-13 season.
Only Liberty (2-1 over Long Island in the 2020-21 season) and Arizona State (over Penn State in the 2012-13 season) have beaten NCAA competition.
This year, Ferris State of the CCHA played Grand Valley State and won 9-0 while having a 61-9 shots advantage. However, through the first 24 minutes of play, the Bulldogs only led 1-0.
Longtime Ferris State head coach Bob Daniels said by playing Grand Valley State, he has hopes it will stir some interest for a Division I program in that area.
“I think that would be a heck of a place to have a Division I program,” he said, mentioning the rise of hockey on the western edge of Michigan.
In a 2022 game, UNLV, one of the strongest programs in the ACHA and has reportedly explored a Division I move, was tied with Alaska Anchorage until the 58th minute in a 3-1 loss.
Jeff Aikens, a former coach at North Dakota State, was one of the founders of the ACHA in 1991. He’s surprised there hasn’t been more Division I versus ACHA matchups.
“When we first met in Chicago and basically started it, I never dreamed it would be thousands of teams later,” said Aikens, who spent a year on Colorado College’s roster in 1981. “There were back then the top four or five teams were all good, then after that there wasn’t much left.”
Aikens expected more Big 10 institutions to add hockey programs once that conference formed in 2013. Now, with more quality players than NCAA Division I teams can handle, the ACHA is now seeing more quality players over recent years.
“I’ve watched some of the games and the games in that [ACHA] Division I level are better than the [NCAA] Division III games used to be,” he said.
Reactions
Understandably, Minot State will have its hands full, especially in a back-to-back.
“It’s going to be definitely a big eye-opener, not only for Minot State’s program and for the ACHA in general, but they’re playing Denver,” University of Jamestown head coach Dean Stork said. “And let’s call a spade a spade, they’re getting the top end of the USHL, so they’re getting the premier players. But it’s all about exposure and opportunity and getting people mindful that you know, ACHA Division I hockey is damn good.”
With holiday tournaments going by the wayside, especially when PairWise points are at stake, Mayotte said he is using the exhibition game against Minot State to keep the Tigers competitive before they resume action Jan. 7.
“I think we’re looking forward to it,” Mayotte said. “It’s a good opportunity for us to get back for the second half and have a good team come in and a team we have to prepare for and execute against. It puts our guys back in game mode before we get to the Gophers.”
Internally, the team enjoys its friendly banter over which country has better hockey, the U.S. or Canada. Asked if there was a buzz on campus, Minot State captain Carter Barley said it depends on who you ask.
“I’d say no, not really,” the St. Andrews, Manitoba, native said. “The teachers kind of know how big this is, but like students, it’s a [NCAA] Division II school, it’s a bunch of southern Americans and they don’t really understand hockey that well. They probably think we’re probably a NCAA Division I team.
“I don’t really think there’s a hype around it, but in the town and in the handshake line with Mary, they’re all wishing us luck. People know how big this is and everyone is really excited for this.”
(Originally published at https://www.therinklive.com/mens-college/exposure-explodes-as-minot-state-faces-denver-colorado-college-but-acha-team-says-it-has-no-d-i-plans)
