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BEL: Opening Weekend Recap

By YHH Staff, 08/03/21, 10:00AM CDT

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Kings take the throne in the Minor Division while Canes wreak havoc on the Major Division's coastline.


Minor Bruins forward Cole Braunshausen celebrates after scoring in a shootout to lift the B's to a win over the North Stars.

How do I know it’s August? Let me count the ways. 

My window air conditioner sounds like an asthmatic who just finished a marathon. 

My dogs whine for a walk until we get a half-block down University Avenue, and they decide it’s too hot to continue. 

My neighbor’s backyard garden looks like the urban farm of many a millennial’s dreams. 

Finally, the labor of love that is the Bantam Elite League begins to dominate my Yahoo inbox, text messages, and voicemails. 

So let’s get to this weekend’s recap. 


Kings forward Cameron Kirschner is currently second among Majors in scoring with five goals and nine points.

Minor Division

On opening weekend, the Kings ruled over the Minor Division, winning all four of their games while outscoring the opposition 25-7. The most physical (and biggest) team of the Minor Division was paced in scoring by Cooper Siegert, whose 10 assists lead the Division. Four players tallied six points each for the Kings, and goaltender Easton Thvedt 47 saves on 48 shots, including a 20-save performance in the second half of the Kings’ Sunday win over North Dakota. 

The Penguins and Bruins finish the weekend tied for second with identical 3-1 records, with the Bruins falling to the Penguins and the Pens taking their lone loss against the league-leading Kings. Caleb Pittsley led the Penguins in scoring on the weekend with four goals and seven points, followed by Carson Moe (six assists) and Tristen Wassengeso (3-2-5), and Cole Cheeseman (2-3-5). For the Bruins, Ryland Demars’ six goals and seven points led the team, with Cole Braunshausen (3-3-6) and Trey Fredenburg (1-5-6) just behind him.

With both the North Stars, Sharks, and Canes at 2-2 after Sunday’s games, the logjam in the middle of the Minor Division continues to grow. 

The North Stars could be pegged as the hardest-luck squad among the eight, with one loss coming against the Bruins in a shootout and the second coming against the Sharks by a score of 8-6 with an empty-net goal. Look for the North Stars to make a run later this season, as they feature the Minor leading scorer in Tyden Bergeson (8-3-11). Wyatt Cullen (3-6-9) and A.J. Francisco (1-7-8) also rank among the league’s leading scorers. 

This weekend, the Sharks rode a seesaw, responding to each loss with a victory and giving the Kings their toughest competition in a 6-4 heartbreaker. Cole Bumgarner (5-3-8), Mikey Berchild (5-2-7), and Casey Vandertop (3-4-7) lead the Sharks in scoring.

After having four different coaches in four games, the Canes emerged with a .500 record heading into the midweek contest, powered no doubt by the Capri-Sun juice pouches left behind interim bench boss Connor Clark. The Canes bounced back after losses to the Kings and Sharks with wins over North Dakota and Wisconsin, led by Alex White’s two goals and five points. 

Yes, North Dakota and Wisconsin finished the weekend 0-4. 

No, this first weekend is not an accurate determinator of how the final standings will look.

North Dakota can build on its valiant comeback attempt against the Bruins, where the boys of the Peace Garden State scored three times in the final 15 minutes of the second half in a 7-4 loss and can take heart in outshooting the North Stars, Canes, and Kings in losses. Mobile and rangy defenseman Lincoln Kuehne recorded three goals and four points for North Dakota, with speedy forward Kane Johnson and the craft Cooper Deziel tallying three points each. 

Goaltender Anthony Radke provided a bright spot for the Wisconsin squad, playing admirably between the pipes despite facing 105 shots, the most of any goaltender at the Minor level. Maddux Charlies, Riley Klava, Evan Foiles, and Gus Johnson notched goals for Wisconsin over the weekend. 


The Penguins finished weekend one with a 3-1 record in the Minor Division.

Major Division

The Canes emerged from the Major side of the league unscathed with a 3-0 record, racking up 11 goals and a barnburner 11-6 win over the Kings in game one, followed by winning the best game of the weekend in game two against North Dakota.

Forward Quintin Schaefer scored with two seconds remaining in regulation to give the Canes the win after North Dakota had tied the game at 3-3 with under two minutes to play.

To round out the weekend, the Canes edged the North Stars 5-3. Schaefer leads the Canes in scoring through three games with four goals and eight points, followed by Luke Myers (2-4-6) and Jackson Rudh (2-4-6).

Close games appear to be Wisconsin’s specialty, as the boys of the Badger state downed the Bruins 4-2, the North Stars 5-4, fell to the Kings in a shootout, and then eked out a 2-1 shootout win over North Dakota.

With those games played so close together, one wouldn’t be surprised to find chewed fingernails all over the Wisconsin section of the arena bleachers. Sam Kappell (2-2-4), Dylan Popehn (2-2-4), and Ty Bashaw paced Wisconsin in scoring through four games, while lone goaltender Charlie Abel posted a 3-1 record with a 2.50 goals-against average and a .907 save percentage. 

The Sharks won two of three over the weekend, downing the North Stars 3-2 (jeez, tough week of close losses for the North Stars), North Dakota 9-4, and falling to the Bruins 7-1.

A pair of future Lake Conference standouts in Minnetonka’s Ashton Schultz (4-2-6) and Eden Prairie’s Ben Box (3-2-5) lead the Sharks in total points, with Bode Sampair and Cullen Ingebritson just behind with four points each. 

There’s nothing quite like back-to-back losses to wake a team up. The Bruins took their lumps early, being handed defeats by Wisconsin (4-2) and the Kings (6-2). The B’s rebounded with a 5-0 win over North Dakota and put an exclamation point on their weekend with a 7-1 win over the Sharks to even their record at 2-2.

The Bruins feature the Major Division’s leading scorer in Henry Lechner (4-6-10), with Drew Krekelberg (1-5-6), Keaton Weis (3-2-5), and Graham Greeder providing impressive supplemental scoring options. 


Henry Lechner leads the BEL Major Division with four goals and 10 points in four games.

An 11-6 loss to the Canes on day one was parlayed into a 6-2 win over the Bruins and a 4-3 win over Wisconsin for the Kings, who ended the weekend with a tough 4-2 loss to the North Stars to end up tied with the Bruins at 2-2. Cameron Kirschner (5-4-9) sits just behind Henry Lechner for the first weekend’s scoring title, while Jackson Ernst (3-4-7) and Mason Moe (4-2-6) slot in just behind Kirschner in the Kings’ pecking order. 

Have you ever seen the meme of the frustrated dog? No? Well, it’s been placed below for your enjoyment. 

That pouting pup also perfectly summarizes the North Stars’ weekend, which consisted of three losses, all by two goals or less, capped with a 4-2 victory over the Kings.

The North Stars fell to the Sharks 3-2, Wisconsin 5-4, and the Canes 5-3 before pulling off the win over the Kings on Sunday. The North Stars pulled within one goal of tying the Sharks with 5:47 to play before being thwarted in the final minutes, tied Wisconsin with 47 seconds left in the second half and fell short, and saw the Canes score three times in the final 7:51 of the second half for a come-from-behind victory. 

With those factors in mind, this North Stars team (led in scoring by Mason Kraft and Brooks Cullen) is a handful of bounces away from a spotless 4-0 mark. Look for the Stars to make more than a bit of noise as the Major season progresses. 

A pair of one-goal losses to the Canes and Wisconsin certainly sting, as North Dakota headed back up I-94 with an 0-4 record. 

No worries. 

Much of this group skated in the Minor Division last year and split weekend one before capturing the Minor Division regular-season championship while featuring two of the league’s top four scorers. They’ll be fine. 

Rylan Bydal, Michael Mathison, and Ray Walen all tallied three points over the weekend. 

This year’s North Dakota team also features the first female to play in the Bantam Elite League in Grand Forks native Kambelle Freije. Freije played admirably throughout the weekend, and currently ranks fifth in the league in goals-against average and sixth in save percentage out of 13 netminders. 


A live look at North Stars' fans after the first BEL Major weekend.

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