Last season, before the Bemidji State women’s hockey team played in the WCHA Final Face Off in Grand Forks, N.D., BSU head coach Jim Scanlan brought in a special guest speaker to talk to his players.

R.H. Peters, the legendary BSU men’s coach for whom Scanlan played in the 1980s, had a message to give to the Beavers, who would go on to beat Minnesota in the semifinals and advance to the WCHA title game for the first time in program history.

“He said, ‘You put yourselves in the neighborhood. Now the challenge is, can you stay there?’ I think not only did we stay there, but (this season) we elevated the program a little more,” Scanlan said.

The Beavers, who finished with a program-record 22 wins and a team-best third place in the WCHA standings, saw a historic season come to an early end two weeks ago, when they were swept by Minnesota Duluth in the first round of the WCHA playoffs.

The loss would knock the Beavers out of the NCAA Tournament picture for good — they were on the bubble and needed a few more wins to make their first-ever national tournament.

And although they had hoped to go even deeper this season, Scanlan said he still counts this year a success.

“Certainly 22 wins, finishing third in this league were accomplishments that speak for themselves,” he said earlier this week, after the Beavers had found out, officially, that they didn’t qualify for an at-large bid to the NCAAs. “But I think another telling factor is, we’ve been in the top 10 for 22 weeks in a row.

“Just the fact that Bemidji State was ranked in the top 10 for the entire year speaks to what this team was able to do.”

The Beavers made it as high as No. 5 and ended up finishing at No. 10 overall in the USCHO.com poll. And though the polls are far from the only factor that monitors a team’s success, the fact that the Beavers were judged by the wider college hockey community to be one of the top 10 teams in the country for the entire season is a significant achievement.

Ultimately, the Beavers went 22-11-3 overall and 17-9-2 in the WCHA. Eight of those 11 losses came at the hands of Wisconsin and Minnesota — the nation’s No. 2 and No. 3 team. One was a 1-0 loss to rivals North Dakota. The other two came at the hands of Minnesota Duluth in the playoffs.

Of course, Scanlan would have loved a win or two over Minnesota and Wisconsin — it might have been the difference in not getting an at-large bid — but 22 wins are still 22 wins.

“Being able to go through this schedule and have the success we did against everybody other than Minnesota and Wisconsin was pretty remarkable,” he said. “The critics are going to say it was a down year for certain programs, but for those of us that play it, it’s a battle every time we go out and we’re proud to get those wins.”

Next season doesn’t get any easier, as the Beavers lose a large senior class — forwards Stephanie Anderson, Kristin Huber, Hanna Moher, Megan Lushanko, Kaitlyn Tougas and Whitney Wivoda and defenders Ivana Bilic and Tegan Rose.

The scoring depth is going to take a hit, as they lose four of their top five-scoring forwards (Tougas, Huber, Anderson and Moher) along with Bilic, who was the WCHA’s defensive player of the year.

Lauren Miller will be the only returning who notched double-digits in scoring, but the talented third and fourth line players such as sophomores Reilly Fawcett, Ciscely Nelson, Emma Terres and Summer Thibodeau and freshman Emily Bergland should get even better with more playing time.

And the Beavers are set to bring in four forwards who should compete for playing time right away — Kiki Radke of Hastings (a Minnesota Ms. Hockey semifinalist), Abby Halluska of Delano, Hill-Murray’s Jacqueline Kaasa and Haley Mack of East Grand Forks.

“We know the challenge in this league is scoring,” Scanlan said. “Can we find scorers not only in our returners and in our incoming class that allow us to stay where we’re at?”

Defensively, the Beavers will miss Bilic, but return one of the top goaltenders in the nation in junior Brittni Mowat, as well as defender Alexis Joyce, who was tied for third on the Beavers in scoring as a sophomore.

Mowat set a number of records for the Beavers this season, becoming the program’s all-time winningest goaltender (51 wins) and setting the record for most wins in a season (22). She also tied program records for most games in a season and goals-against average.

“From the net net on out, with Brit coming back, we’re going to be very strong,” Scanlan said. “Obviously you don’t just replace Ivana Bilic with anybody, she’s a phenomenal player. But with returning players we have and the incoming freshmen we have, it’s going to be a really strong core.”

Junior Madison Hutchison was also a double-digit scorer from the blueline, while freshman Melissa Hunt was named to the WCHA’s all-rookie team.

As for the newcomers, Briana Jorde of Thief River Falls will join her fellow former Prowler teammates Emily Bergland and Sylvia Marolt next season, while Lauren Bench was a semifinalist for Minnesota’s senior goalie of the year award at Burnsville.

Scanlan said he knows he has some holes to fill and some decisions to make come next season, but he’s excited for the chance to do it again next season.

“A lot of talented hockey players walked out the door, but that means there’s opportunities for different players to assume different roles. Power play, all the lines, you name it,” he said. “I think our group next year has an opportunity to stay right where we’re at. It’s going to be a challenge but I really like the leadership in that room right now. That’s where it all starts.”