Kyle Looft’s New Years Eve was spent mostly in pain.
Bemidji State’s defenseman was attempting to block a shot in the Beavers’ game against St. Cloud State when the puck smashed his wrist, resulting in a broken bone. The Beavers lost that game 6-1, but most importantly they lost Looft. The senior captain required surgery that kept him out of commission for nearly six weeks.
Looft returned to the ice two weekends ago against Northern Michigan and picked up right where he left off: Blocking shots. Looft blocked three shots against the Wildcats and then blocked another this past weekend against Ferris State.
“I wasn’t sure really what to expect coming back,” he said. “Obviously, it’s in the back of your head when you’re sitting in the stands; you have time to think about it. But once I got out into games, I didn’t even really think about it at all.”
Looft is in the midst of a career year for the Beavers, and it’s not just about blocking shots–although he certainly is good at that too. The fifth-year senior never had more than eight points in each of his previous four seasons in Bemidji, but after returning for his extra COVID year, he’s blossomed both offensively and defensively, with five goals, 15 assists and, yes 37 blocked shots.
Anything he can do to help the team, that’s what Looft wants to do on the ice.
“We call it ‘Beaver Hockey,’” Looft said. “Sacrificing for the team. For us, Beaver Hockey is winning hockey, and blocking shots as part of that, all the other sacrifices that we have such as hitting and all the other little details of the game that are hard to do and that not every hockey player wants to do. That’s just part of our game if you want to play here, and once you do, it’s engraved in your system. We definitely take pride in all that.”
The Beavers are taking pride in those little things and hitting their stride doing so. Ever since they were swept by St. Cloud over New Years’ weekend–a pair of 6-1 losses–BSU has managed to get at least two points from each series. And although that doesn’t seem like much, just taking one look at the CCHA standings this season will tell you that two points is the difference between leading the league outright and a four-way tie for second. (The Beavers managed to salvage two points from their series against Michigan Tech on Jan. 20 when they held off a furious Huskies rally and won a shootout.)
“I think our team was finding our stride in the whole month of January when I was out,” Looft said. “Just watching the games, watching the team, watching practice every day, being in the room, we felt we had good vibes in the room because of the way we were playing. I think that what we were working towards has finally started to click a little bit and now we’re playing good hockey, more consistent hockey, which is helping us win more games in a row.”
Since Looft has returned to the lineup, the Beavers have continued winning. The Beavers (13-15-2, 11-7-2 CCHA) took five out of six possible points from both NMU and Ferris and now find themselves sitting atop the CCHA standings by two points. BSU has 37 points, while three different teams (St. Thomas, Minnesota State and Bowling Green) each have 35 points.
It just so happens that the Beavers get to play both St. Thomas and Minnesota State head-to-head in the last two weekends of the regular season. All this is to say that the Beavers currently control their own destiny in the race for the MacNaughton Cup.
“In the summer, right after the season, you’re thinking about how are you gonna put yourself in that position? Whether you’re training, whether you’re at practice in the fall, and then working your games throughout the year like, you’re trying to set yourself up for the situation, and now we have that situation,” Looft said. “So it’s definitely on your mind, but we’re also just thinking: ‘What are we going to do today, on Tuesday to get better and prepare for our game on Friday?’ So you’ve got to take it one day at a time but at the same time, you’ve got to realize what’s at stake.”
Looft has yet to win a league title at BSU; the closest he came was his freshman season in the 2019-20 season when the Beavers were within one game of Minnesota State for the WCHA title but lost on the final day of the regular season. Looft was also a part of the infamous 2022 CCHA tournament championship game in Mankato that featured a disallowed goal in overtime.
“I think in my four years prior to this, I’ve played in three games that had a championship on the line, and, we’ve come up short all three of those times,” Looft said. “That’s definitely on my mind. I want to leave here a champion, and I feel like we’ve done a good job of putting ourselves in that position. We just have to execute on Friday. That’s our focus right now. It’s all about Friday.”
The Beavers head to the Twin Cities on Friday for their series against St. Thomas. The Tommies were leading the CCHA as of just two weeks ago–which just goes to show how volatile the league standings have been this year. With the MacNaughton Cup on the line–it could potentially be in the building at the Tommies’ rink in Mendota Heights, Minn., on Saturday depending on how other games around the league play out–Looft is expecting a battle.
“They’re a really good team. They’re fast, they have good forwards, and they’re very well coached,” Looft said. “Obviously [Tommies head coach Rico Blasi] has done a really good job there, and I have a lot of respect for him and what he’s done over the last few years to get this program to where it’s at right now. They’ve come from not having a Division I program to being one of the top teams in this conference.
“We know they’re a very fast, skilled team, but they also play the right way. And obviously they have really good goaltending, too, so it’s gonna be a tough challenge for us for sure. But I’m super excited about it, it should be a really good series.”
