One thing first-year Bemidji State women’s head coach Jim Scanlan said early in the season still stands out.

It was October and the Beavers had just returned from Moon Township, Pa., and were 2-0 for the first time in program history after sweeping Robert Morris on the road.

Those were just the Beavers’ first games of the season, but there already seemed to be something different about this season’s team.

Still, ever the cool head, Scanlan wasn’t about to allow his team to get too high about the first weekend of the season.

“I told the girls, nobody’s throwing a parade for us here, so let’s not get too excited,” Scanlan said at the time.

No parades were thrown this season, but the Beavers treated themselves to numerous ice cream outings (a tradition after a road sweep) en route to a record-breaking season.

That season came to Sunday in Grand Forks, when the Beavers lost to Wisconsin 4-0 in the championship game of the WCHA Final Faceoff. BSU finished with a 21-17-1 record — the best in program history — and were just a game away from its first-ever NCAA Tournament berth. Scanlan was awarded the WCHA’s Coach of the Year for his efforts — although he would be the first to say it was all his team’s success.

I don’t know if “almost-but-not-winning” the conference tournament is worthy of a parade for the Beavers, but overall the season was worth a couple of free sundaes at the ice cream establishment of choice.

“You get to that game, you definitely want to win it,” Scanlan said Monday, a day after finishing off the best season in BSU history.

“How often do you get the opportunity to play for a championship? That part is certainly disappointing, but in the big picture, I’d never evaluate a season based on the result of your last game.”

Especially considering what it took them to get there.

BSU started the season 4-0 against nonconference competition, but came to earth a bit after losing their first four conference games. The next weekend (Oct. 31-Nov. 1) at then No. 1 ranked Minnesota was make-or-break for the Beavers.

And the Beavers turned some heads, taking five points from Minnesota.

“To come back with five points, that was kind of a confirmation for the girls that we can play with anybody as long as we approach games a certain way and play hard,” Scanlan said. “All the things we talk about, you have a chance if you do it. “When that happened, it certainly helped give us a world of confidence.”

That confidence carried over, as BSU swept North Dakota at home, took the season series from Minnesota Duluth and beat Wisconsin in Madison.

There were a few highs and lows along the way — like losing at Lindenwood and losing all four games in the season series against Ohio State — but the Beavers never got too far out of it.

“There was no low point, no touch points where you felt like you wanted to season to be over with,” Scanlan said. “This league is extremely challenging … it doesn’t matter if you’re playing Minnesota or Mankato, it’s going to be a hard-fought game. And to have success against those teams in the upper echelon was huge. All along, our goal was to get home ice. We were right there until the last weekend. That was a real possibility.”

That did happen, but the run the Beavers had in the final two weeks in the season — taking Duluth to overtime in game three and then winning in overtime, then beating Minnesota 1-0 in the Final Faceoff — gives Scanlan some confidence for next season.

“I haven’t had a whole lot of time to think about it,” he said. “There’s a lot every single individual player can do between now and next year. Hopefully every one of our players will take the opportunity to do just that to work on their skills.

“They’ve gotten that taste, they see what it takes and we can’t rest on that. We have to continue to try and get better.”

Although BSU loses five seniors (captain Kristine Grenier, forwards Alex Citrowske, Rachael Kelly and Jenessa Philipczyk and defender Kayleigh Chapman), five of the six players who started and played top-line minutes in last weekend’s WCHA Final Faceoff will return.

Forwards and leading scorers Kaitlyn Tougas (13 goals, 14 assists) and Stephanie Anderson (14g, 10a, 24pts) return for their senior seasons — Anderson will spend the spring with Team USA. On defense, both junior Ivana Bilic and freshman Alex Joyce — the team’s freshman scoring leader and All-WCHA Rookie Team — are set to return, as is first-team All-WCHA goaltender Brittni Mowat.

Scanlan likes the team he has back, but noted the senior class would be missed — especially from a leadership standpoint.

“We’re going to be completely different team,” he said. “We have a lot coming back, no question, but you take five seniors, key players out in terms of leadership, then bring in five new players — that chemistry is so important. So we’ll see how that works out.”

Still, whatever happens, this season has hopefully put the Beaver women’s hockey program on the map. If anything, the success this season will have everybody around the college hockey world curious to see what Scanlan and the Beavers do next — and maybe will have some who don’t already follow the program curious to start.

“It was a very successful season in terms of player growth, team development and putting ourselves in a position where were’ playing for a championship,” Scanlan said “But also trying to generate some excitement for women’s hockey here at Bemidji State, trying to create a footprint that people would want to come watch and follow the program.”

Hopefully that interest in the Beaver women’s program will keep growing. And maybe next year the hypothetical parade route will become a reality— even if it’s just from the Sanford Center to the nearest ice cream joint.

JACK HITTINGER covers BSU athletics, including the men’s and women’s hockey programs, for the Bemidji Pioneer. Read his blog at http://thebeaverblog.areavoices.com/ and follow him on Twitter at @jackhitts.