Bemidji State's first victory in last year's NCAA hockey tournament came as a surprise. Its second was a shocker, too. The 16th-seeded Beavers were the lowest seed to reach the Frozen Four, dispatching Notre Dame and Cornell and becoming the darlings of the tournament before falling in the semifinals. But Bemidji, a northern Minnesota university of a little more than 5,000 students, is growing accustomed to winning this season. The Beavers are 13-4-1 heading into winter break. The early highlight was a 3-2 win over top-ranked Miami of Ohio, the team that knocked the Beavers out of the tournament in April. Bemidji coach Tom Serratore said the tournament wins were a springboard for the program. 'There are not many schools our size that get the opportunity to play in the Frozen Four,' he said. 'There was a lot of pride, because we're basically the little guy.' Last year's run helped open doors. After this season, Bemidji State will join the powerhouse Western Collegiate Hockey Association, just in time for the opening of a 4,700-seat arena that is part of a larger events center along the south shore of Lake Bemidji. The Beavers' new home will be in the heart of Bemidji, a town of about 13,000 where hockey is as much a part of daily life as the lumber mills. 'That's hockey country; it's dyed-in-the-wool, hard core, very knowledgeable hockey country,' WCHA Commissioner Bruce McLeod said. Serratore put everything on the table in an impassioned pitch to McLeod, calling on a group of alumni that included former Olympians to argue why Bemidji belongs in the WCHA. The magic the team conjured in April was 'the icing on the cake,' McLeod said. The timing was right for Bemidji, which needed a new home because its conference, College Hockey America, will disband after this season. Bemidji will join the four other programs from Minnesota in the WCHA, whose teams have combined for 30 national titles. The Beavers have breezed through the four-team CHA in recent seasons, so the move alters expectations. Bob Peters coached Bemidji for 35 years and guided the team during its rise to Division I, which he said was 'a transition period of colossal challenges.' He said he expected more of the same with the Beavers' next big step forward, adding it might take a four-year cycle before Bemidji can finish at the top with WCHA programs like Denver and North Dakota. The most recent transition was full of doubt for Peters, who is retired from coaching but is still a Bemidji supporter. 'Were we going to be in a league? Were we going to get a building? Were we going to be playing hockey at all?' he said. 'Under those circumstances, they were still able to recruit a team that accomplished what you saw last year.' McLeod acknowledged it would be 'tough sledding' for the Beavers at the start, but Serratore knows what lies ahead. He said he saw parallels between his team and the small towns of northern Minnesota, towns that thrive on the idea of community and that were bred on hockey. He added, 'We're a small school, but we're a proud school.' This spring, when the calendar turns to tournament time, Bemidji State will probably be an underdog once again. The small university from a small town would not have it any other way. 