The 2023-24 season was a historic one for the Bethel University men’s hockey team, who finished the regular season with a 17-5-3 record good for a .733 winning percentage—the best in program history. The Royals appeared primed to win the MIAC for the first time since 2007, even defeating the College of Saint Scholastica in a double overtime thriller to advance to the MIAC championship game.
And then the St. Olaf College Oles came to the Bethel University Arena. The fifth-seeded Oles built a 2-1 lead through two periods of play and added on twice in the final period to win 4-1. The Royals still haven’t forgotten about the loss.
“There’s a lot of thoughts, thinking about the MIAC championship game and even the outdoor game we played against them,” junior winger Tyler Braccini said. “That fires up a lot of emotions in a good way.”
Even with a disappointing loss in the MIAC championship game, expectations coming into the 2024-2025 season couldn’t have been higher for the Royals. The Royals began the season just outside the top 15 in DIIIhockeynews.com’s preseason poll. Their sights were set on winning not just the MIAC but making a deep NCAA playoff run.
But expectations were immediately met with disappointment as the Royals lost three straight out-of-conference matchups against fifth-ranked St. Norbert and sixth-ranked University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
After a shootout road loss to the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, the Royals’ record sat at 0-3-1.
“We were a team that had the highest expectations with the lowest output,” Braccini said.
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The Royals won the finale of the 2024 portion of their schedule 4-3 on an overtime goal from Braccini to sweep St. John’s University on Dec. 6. It was Braccini’s eighth goal of the season in eleven games in what ended up being an 18-goal, 29-point regular season. He led the MIAC in both categories.
The junior winger has emerged as the Royals’ top scorer in his third season with the team. But Braccini’s journey to MIAC-leading scorer has been anything but normal. He bounced between five different junior teams in Minnesota, Alaska, Wisconsin and Iowa, failing to find consistent playing time anywhere.
“A lot of the coaches I played for did not believe in me,” Braccini said. “One of them said I would never be an average DIII hockey player.”
That message has been on his whiteboard ever since.
Next to Braccini on that overtime line was center Jack Brown and defenseman Spencer Kring. The trio has accounted for three of the Royals’ four overtime wins this season and lead the Royals in scoring.
Kring spent three years in the North American Hockey League before getting recruited by Bethel head coach Chris McKelvie and former assistant coach Brian Gibbons. The connection with the Bethel coaching staff felt different than his junior hockey experience.
“They would continuously reach out and just ask how I was doing, how my family was,” Kring said. “Just the little things that built on the fact that Bethel and the community here treats you like more than just an athlete.”
This season Kring has 18 points in 24 games played including six goals, one of which was an overtime winner on Jan. 17 to defeat Augsburg 4-3.
Assisting on that overtime winner was center Jack Brown, who finished second on the team in points with 20 and goals with eight. The trio are friends both on and off the ice, rooming with each other to form a special connection for the Royals.
“It makes it easy when we live with each other,” Kring said. “I share the basement with Brown, so me and Brown have something. We call it the dungeon connection.”
The trio came up big once again in overtime Feb. 1, knocking off first-place Gustavus Adolphus College 5-4. This time Brown got the game winner, with Braccini earning the primary assist and Kring getting the secondary.
“It’s been really fun to win those games in overtime,” Braccini said. “There’s nothing like scoring a goal in overtime and having your team rush you on the ice.”
Still, with all of the overtime wins, the Royals left points on the table. They often missed out on the three points that come from a regulation win and put together only one two-win weekend in MIAC play.
Needing to separate themselves from the rest of the pack and secure an all-important home playoff game, the Royals hosted Concordia College for two games on Feb. 14 and 15. In game one, the Royals earned a shootout victory as Jack Brown came away with the winner again.
Saturday, however, the Royals put together a six-goal performance—including five unanswered—to win 6-3. That gave them a five-point weekend to put them firmly in second place and in line to host a playoff game.
The Royals followed it up by securing the second seed with a 3-1 win over rival St. Olaf in their final regular season home game of the year.
“We’ve gotten a lot better as the season’s gone on,” Brown said. “And we’re hot right now, we’ve won three of our last four, and I think that’s a great spot to be in going into the playoffs.”
Still, the Royals’ loss in the final game of the season allowed the Oles to jump up to third in the MIAC, setting up a semifinal matchup Saturday night Mar.1 in Blaine.
It will be the fourth matchup between the two squads this season and the third in the span of a week.
“It just builds up even more momentum, you get to know their guys even more,” Brown said. “I’m sure off the ice we’d all be good friends. On the ice it’s a little different.”
As the Oles and Royals prepare to battle once more, tickets for Saturday’s semifinal matchup continue to go fast, setting the stage for an atmosphere reminiscent of last season’s championship game sellout at the Bethel University Arena.
