Mike Kraft/MDN Minot State men’s hockey coach Wyatt Waselenchuk directs his team during a practice at Maysa leading into its season opener at Jamestown on Friday, Oct. 10.

Every team across the American Collegiate Hockey Association landscape sets the goal of going to Maryland Heights, Mo. – the site of this year’s 24-team National Tournament – at season’s end and winning a national championship.

For some programs, that goal is realistic and attainable. For others, it’s plausible but may seem more like wishful thinking. And for the rest, it’s a pipe dream.

Inside the Minot State men’s hockey locker room and throughout the Minot community, a national championship is more than just the goal. It’s the expectation. It’s the standard.

That’s why despite a 38-3-1 record last year that saw the Beavers finish 23-1 in the Midwest College Hockey conference, claim the tournament title in their first year and advance to the National Tournament semifinals, the season felt like a disappointment. Other teams would jump at the opportunity to have a season like the one MSU had, but for the Beavers, it simply wasn’t good enough.

“As soon as you put on that jersey or step in that locker room, we are expected to win a championship and that’s our goal and that’s been ingrained in the program the last number of years,” senior forward and second-year captain Jay Buchholz said. “When you ingrain teams that have a lot of success in the past and they know what it’s like to win, you don’t want to go to a losing season. If we don’t come up at the end of the year with a championship, it was a bad season or we fell short. At the same time, we like the pressure. You play big games on Tuesday or Friday nights and Saturday nights in front of big crowds and you’re expected to win and we want to do that for everyone in the stands.”

MSU’s 2024-25 campaign fell two wins shy of capturing its fourth national championship in program history. The Beavers fell to Adrian College (Mich.) in the national semifinals in a year that saw UNLV capture its first national championship. UNLV opens this season as the No. 1 team in the rankings, receiving 28 of 35 first-place votes. Adrian, Minot State, Liberty and Ohio University round out the top five. The Beavers received one first-place vote.

The Beavers are one of eight ACHA programs with multiple national championships on their resume. They claimed their first title by beating Lindenwood in 2013 and raised their second banner in 2019, defeating Iowa State. Their third and final championship came in 2023 when they toppled Adrian.

MSU head coach Wyatt Waselenchuk has a title with the Beavers both as a player and a coach. While he acknowledges the pressure that comes along with the job, he also embraces it.

“Pressure is a privilege,” Waselenchuk said. “Whether your day is good, bad, indifferent, I wake up every day very grateful to be able to do what I do and have the support that we do from Minot State University and our community. In terms of games and national championships and expectations as a team, we had a 39-3 season last year and felt like we didn’t get anything accomplished at the end of the day and that’s a pretty incredible circumstance to be in that position and do that well as a program and win as many games as a program as we have and at the end of the day not be satisfied. I know we have a hungry group to do it again and get better than we were last year, but at the end of the day it’s a lot of gratitude I have toward our players and how they buy into what we’re doing. The level we’re at and the level of support we have is unlike anything at our level. It’s pressure, but it’s a good kind of pressure.”

Waselenchuk is in his fifth season behind the bench, sporting a 134-16-1 record. He brings back a loaded roster, returning 9 of its 10 top scorers from a year ago, including leading scorer Joey Moffatt, who was 12th in the ACHA in scoring with 26 goals and 21 assists. Colby Joseph was second on the team in scoring with 27 goals and 15 assists.

The Beavers roster includes one graduate student, seven seniors, seven juniors, five sophomores and three freshmen. One freshman, goaltender Sheldon Biggley, is a transfer from Williston State and junior Jeremy Dewar comes over from Division III Anna Maria College (Mass.). Along with Buchholz serving as team captain, Logan Rands, Christian Kadolph and Joseph are the three assistant captains this season. Rands and Kadolph also served as assistant captains last year.

“We have a lot of returning guys who we all fell short of our goal and it’s kind of like a revenge tour,” Buchholz said. “We all want that championship and we want to win our last game of the season. It’s just that type of mentality and to finally be able to kick off our real season here this Friday, it’s exciting.”

The Beavers lost just five players to graduation – two forwards, two defensemen and goaltender Jake Anthony. Anthony was the primary netminder last year, playing in 25 games and sporting a 20-2-2 record with a 1.91 goals against average and .920 save percentage. For his career, Anthony was 70-11-2 with 12 shutouts, a 1.84 goals against average and a .926 save percentage.

Sophomore Will Dyke will take over in net this season. He appeared in 15 games as a freshman, adjusting well to the speed of the ACHA. He was 14-0-1 with a 1.51 goals against average and .936 save percentage with two shutouts.

“It was a good learning year last year,” Dyke said. “I didn’t play a bulk of the games. I sat on the bench and got to learn how other teams play and how we play. It was really just a learning year last year. I learned how our team operates, how our systems are, how our team plays, all of that stuff. I learned to come into the rink and have fun every day. When you come to the rink it’s the best part of the day. You get to play hockey. You don’t have to worry about school or classes or any of that for the two hours at the rink each day. Just come to the rink, have fun, enjoy it and have a good time with the guys playing the sport that you love.”

Serving behind Dyke will be freshmen Blake Sittler and Biggley. On paper, it would appear that goaltender would be the biggest question mark with the lack of experience, but not in the eyes of Waselenchuk.

“Will Dyke was a freshman who fortunately chose to come here,” Waselenchuk said. “He had a ton of opportunities to attend other schools and we talked about that. Having Jake Anthony in his senior season it was going to be his net and Will was a fantastic teammate. He’s a tremendous human being and he understood any chance he had he was going to make the most of. He did everything he possibly could and put himself in position to be our guy this year. He’s a professional playing at our level. We have a ton of confidence in him.”

Dyke will play in front of a defensive core that allowed 1.82 goals per game and an offensive attack that put up 4.76 goals per game.

The Beavers will be tested early and often as both their conference and non-conference schedule is loaded with ranked opponents. MSU is slated to play 29 regular season games and 28 of them are against currently ranked teams, beginning with a home-and-home against in-state rival No. 6 Jamestown beginning on Friday, Oct. 10. The Beavers will play 16 conference games and 13 non-conference games. The only game against an unranked opponent comes on Dec. 13 against Lake Region State.

“I came here in 2010 as a player and if we had 24 games on the schedule and four or six were ranked, it was a big deal,” Waselenchuk said. “At this level, I want to play the best and I know the guys want to compete and play the best. THere’s nothing fun about beating a team by double digits. It doesn’t do anything for you as a program besides pad the stat sheet. The ranking heading into nationals, having a strength of schedule that’s in your favor, that’s one of the things I’ve been most proud of. Not only have we kept our losses to a minimum, but we’ve had the No. 1 strength of schedule over the course of the last four seasons and we’re going to have that again this season.”

MSU’s MCH schedule includes games against No. 6 Jamestown, No. 14 U-Mary and No. 22 Midland. The Beavers don’t play Iowa State, Waldorf or McKendree. The non-conference schedule includes contests against No. 1 UNLV, No. 4 Liberty (Va.), No. 7 Maryville (Mo.), No. 10 Utah, No. 12 Calvin (Mich.), and No. 24 Arizona State.

“Championships aren’t just won in March when the tournament is,” Buchholz said. “This year as we get to school in September, you’re playing all those games throughout the year. When we are playing these games, we want to be challenged. If we could, we would want to be playing the best of the best every weekend. Obviously you’re playing ranked teams left and right every weekend and it pushes you and makes you somewhat ready with what you might face at the National Tournament.”

Maysa Arena has proven to be a major home-ice advantage over the years, allowing the Beavers to come out victorious against difficult opponents. Under Waselenchuk, MSU is 65-2-0 and have currently won 27 straight home contests. Its last loss came in a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Jamestown on Nov. 3, 2023. They have 15 games at Maysa Arena this season.

“Home ice advantage is huge here,” Waselenchuk said. “It’s a loud building. We’re up there in attendance for anybody at our level. The support is absolutely tremendous. I can’t go to a restaurant or go to the golf course without someone talking about the game last weekend. That’s the privilege I have as a head coach here and it’s something we certainly don’t take lightly. Minot is a hockey town and we’re fortunate to have the support we do.”

The National Tournament is still five months away, set to begin on March 12 with a champion being crowned on March 17, but the Beavers know Missouri is the ultimate destination and a fourth championship banner is the goal, expectation and standard. And every game gets them one step closer to that end result.

“In Minot it’s always kind of championship or bust,” Dyke said. “We know we have a group here that can win a championship. Last year we didn’t do that and it stings. We know that returning as many guys as we do, we know we are a team here to win and the expectation here is to end the season as champions and have that ring on our finger.”