There wasn’t a lot of movement this week, so instead I want to look at something I’ve noticed over the last couple weeks worth of polling results: Bemidji is a divisive squad. They’re in 8th place, and this week their average vote was just a touch worse than 7th place (3.91 points per voter). While only Minnesota State and Bowling Green are pulling in first and second place votes, Bemidji has the widest variance of all of the other schools.
They lost 3-1 and had a 3-3 shootout loss (which counts as a tie for NCAA purposes) to Bowling Green this week, so surely that doesn’t explain it alone. Looking at the wider schedule, it becomes clear what’s going on. Bemidji opened the season with a win against UMD, followed by a shootout win at UMD the next night. They then went on to split with Air Force, then take a regulation win and a shootout win off of Ferris. None of them are top-16 teams in the country, but UMD is #18 by PairWise, and the other two are mid-table teams. These are all respectable wins, and hardly guarantees.
But that’s where it fell apart. With the strength of their neighbors in Mankato, getting swept my the Mavericks is probably expected, but splits with Princeton (#48) and Alaska (#57) don’t look too good on a resume. I’m not one of our voters, but if I were, I wouldn’t know what to do with that. A team that has a very respectable start to the season but then starts to falter is a mystery. Is it a lucky start, or an unlucky streak that’s followed (or maybe both)?
Bemidji plays their next three series at home, and I’m sure my colleagues in the league press will be watching those performances closely to see if anybody can crack the code. Obviously many THG readers will want to watch as the Huskies host Ferris State, but keep an eye on Bemidji as the Northern Michigan Wildcats head down for the weekend.
The most recent results are below, but the latest poll results can always be found on our Polls page.
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Featured image credit Bob Gilreath.
Alex Slepak is the former Editor-in-Chief of Tech Hockey Guide. Alex was a Student Conductor of the Huskies Pep Band and graduated from MTU in 2014 with a B.S. in Scientific and Technical Communication. After graduating, he moved to the Twin Cities where he now writes software manuals for a living.
