BOWLING GREEN – Bowling Green State University will finish the regular season of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association schedule with a series this Friday and Saturday at Alabama Huntsville’s Von Braun Center.
Friday’s contest between the Falcons and the Chargers will face off at 7:07 p.m. local time, while Saturday’s game will start at 4:07 p.m. Eastern Time.
No. 15 Bowling Green enters this contest in third place in the WCHA standings with 55 points thanks to a 16-5-5-2 league mark; the Falcons are 19-9-6 overall. Alabama Huntsville is tied for sixth in the league with 30 points thanks to a 9-15-2-1 mark in league play. The Chargers are 10-20-2 on the season.
Here’s a closer look at BG hockey heading into this weekend.
A LOOK BACK: The Falcons are coming off a successful weekend at Alaska Anchorage last Thursday and Friday. Bowling Green scored four goals in the third period of a 5-2 win the first night, then got a late goal from Tyler Spezia to beat the Seawolves 2-1 on Friday.
“I was happy with the results both nights, because obviously it’s not an easy trip,” BG coach Chris Bergeron said. “After looking at the tape, we didn’t play very well – there were lots of areas to improve on.
“From a habits and details perspective, it looked as if we had been off for a week, and that’s something we need to clean up.”
Bergeron said he felt the team’s struggles were more a factor of “rust” after not playing for a week rather than struggling to adapt to a four-hour time change.
“That trip takes some getting used to, and it’s really difficult to get your body-clock right, get your sleep right and get your head right,” he said. “But I don’t want to use that as an excuse.
“The issue, to me, was on our details and our habits, and I want to put that on we had been off for a week. But there may be a little of both in there.”
The good thing was that the Falcons found a way to win despite not playing particularly well, which Bergeron said says something positive about this team and the program as a whole.
“When push came to shove, our guys stepped up,” he said. “At critical times, whether it be a save or a pass, we made it and end up winning two games. …
“There’s a good in that for sure: We can get back to the level we need to be at. It’s not a bar set on where I want us to be; I’m setting it on where we have been.”
A LOOK AHEAD: The Falcons will travel to Alabama for its traditional regular-season ending series against the Chargers. Just before the Christmas break the two teams met at the Slater Family Ice Arena, skating to a 3-3 tie on Friday (with Alabama Huntsville winning the shootout) before BG earned a 3-1 win on Saturday.
“The last time we played them, they showed us they are capable,” Bergeron said. “They hemmed us in our own zone for times, and they played fast and hard.
“And they’ve gotten some guys back who didn’t play in the series here, so I expect a very difficult series.”
While the Chargers do not have a playoff spot locked up, there is only a tiny chance Alabama Huntsville does not make the playoffs. They are tied with Alaska for sixth in the standings with 30 points (the Nanooks hold the tiebreaker), with Ferris State eighth with 28 points and Lake Superior State ninth with 27.
The reason the chance is small that Huntsville will fall to ninth is that the two teams below them, Ferris State and Lake Superior State, play one another this weekend. This scenario also demands that Huntsville not collect a single point this weekend.
“I didn’t realize there were scenarios where Lake Superior can get into the ‘top eight’ [of the WCHA], so [the Chargers] do not have a guaranteed spot yet,” Bergeron said. “So I’m looking for a hungry team that plays that way.”
Offensively senior Josh Kestner leads Huntsville in scoring with 20 goals, more than double the next-highest total of nine by junior Tyler Poulsen and freshman Christian Rajic, and Kestner also has a team-high 27 points. Poulsen leads the team with 14 assists, and junior defenseman Cam Knight is second with 11.
In goal, senior Jordan Uhelski ranks eighth in the WCHA in goals-against average with a 2.95 mark, and he stands fourth in save percentage at 91.0 percent.
“Their senior group is a group their coaching staff brought in,” Bergeron said. “And you can’t just get experience, you have to gain it. And this group has earned it. …
“They enter this weekend ‘inside’ the playoffs looking out, and that’s good experience.”
A LOOK INSIDE: The Falcons playoff fate is pretty clear entering the final weekend of the WCHA season. With 55 points, BG cannot finish lower than third place in the league standings, but the Falcons need collect four more points that Northern Michigan does this weekend to earn second.
Unlike baseball, where out-of-town scores are often flashed on the scoreboard, Bergeron said there will be little chance he will do much scoreboard-watching this weekend.
“What makes it hard is that I’m compulsive-obsessive, so staring at the scoreboard is what I do,” Bergeron said. “We need to take care of our business, and if [moving up in the standings] is supposed to happen, it will happen.
“We have no control over the scoreboard, so watching the scoreboard does us no good.”
Since the Falcons have experience finishing the regular season at Alabama-Huntsville, Bergeron laughed when he was asked about the scoreboard-watching opportunities there.
“There’s no scoreboard during the game,” Bergeron said. “It’s between periods when I get updates on scores – and part of that is to help me get through the 15 minutes of intermission.”
Contact John Wagner at jwagner@theblade.com, 419-724-6481, or on Twitter @jwagnerblade.
First Published February 23, 2018, 2:59 p.m.
