The Rangers (5-1-2-0) bounced back after losing their first game last weekend, 7-2, against the North Stars with three straight wins over the Sharks, Kings, and Penguins to ease into the first overall seed for the playoffs. 

Outside of the loss, the Rangers have yet to be held to fewer than three goals in a game, and have scored five or more in five contests.

Four Rangers have scored in double-digits this BEL Major season, paced by Rosemount’s Connor Schubert (6G-7A-13P). Armstrong/Cooper’s Liam Grant (5-7-12), Eastview’s Sam Wooten (7-5-12), and Osseo-Maple Grove’s Wyatt Kuznik (4-6-10) round out the Rangers’ top scorers. 

The Rangers are also armed with one of the league’s top goaltenders in Matthew Fox (Stillwater). Fix has allowed just nine goals on 122 shots for a goals-against-average of 2.25 and a save percentage of .926. 

The only team to have defeated the league-leading Rangers and always a danger come Bantam Elite League playoff time, the North Stars (3-2-3-0) have lost just twice in eight games so far. The North Stars have also shown a great deal of comfort in extra innings, winning all three games that have gone into shootouts. 

Two Moorhead Spuds and a Hibbing/Chisholm Bluejacket sit atop the North Stars roster in scoring. Max Cullen (2-8-10) and Evan Wanner (5-5-10) provide the one-two punch from the Red River Valley, while Jackson Strukel (7-3-10) indicates that the Castle in the Woods could have found its next crop of talent. 

Goaltenders Hudson Ferries and Kaenan Smith have combined to allow 20 goals through eight games, the fewest in the league. 

There’s no hotter team among BEL Major squads right now than North Dakota. 

Three straight wins in Burnsville give the sons of Teddy Roosevelt a cavalry’s worth of momentum heading into St. Cloud. Among those victories was a 4-1 win over the second-seeded North Stars, a game in which North Dakota scored four times in the second half and got a combined 22 saves on 23 shots from the duo of Oliver Bryan and Paul Suda. 

The bulk of this North Dakota squad advanced to last summer’s BEL Minor championship before losing in overtime.

See the game preview video above for more information on North Dakota.