BOWLING GREEN — The Central Collegiate Hockey Association is bunched up in the middle, and Bowling Green State University is looking to capitalize with a strong second half to its season.
As the second semester of classes rolls in, players are adjusting to new schedules, the coaching staff is adapting to a practice schedule, and the team is gearing up for a rigorous stretch run and race to the finish line before the CCHA tournament starts on March 4.
The Falcons are 9-8-3 overall, 6-5-1 in league play, and have 19 points for a current fifth-place standing in the CCHA. Minnesota State (18-4-0, 12-2-0 CCHA) is running away with 35 points to lead the standings, but the difference between second-place Bemidji State (10-10-0, 8-4-0) and sixth-place Northern Michigan (10-8-1, 6-7-1) is six points.
BGSU is one point behind fourth-place Lake Superior State (11-10-1, 7-7-0) for the coveted fourth seed, which is the cutoff for hosting a home playoff series in the CCHA tournament.
Falcons coach Ty Eigner stressed the importance of earning a home playoff series, and he said the team’s major goal is to achieve a top-four finish in the league standings.
“We felt like this group had the potential to be a really good team,” Eigner said, “and we felt like it was a team that ... the goal and hopefully what would happen with all those new pieces would be that we’re playing our best hockey at the end of the year. We’ve played everybody in our league with the exception of Michigan Tech, so we know we have some familiarity, we know who’s who.
“I think if you look at the standings, two through six right now is really tight. ... All those teams right there are thinking the exact same thing. If we can get on a run, if we can start playing well, if we can get hot, we can climb the standings.”
Bowling Green is coming off a split series in Milwaukee, in which they lost to No. 16 Providence and rebounded for a victory against Yale to close out its nonconference schedule.
“I think with the new half, coming off a big win, we’re just going to go full for it now,” goaltender Christian Stoever said. “Especially with playoffs in seven weeks, it’s going to come up fast. Every game, three points each, it’s going to matter.”
One of the keys talked about by Eigner is discipline and earning chances in front of the opposing team’s net. The Falcons offered 11 power-play chances to Providence and Yale over the previous weekend, which resulted in just one goal as a credit to the Falcons’ special teams defense.
“We’ve talked about discipline a lot lately, and a lot more of it’s discipline in our actions,” Eigner said. “Discipline in not taking that penalty that’s going to put us down. The stick penalties and those kind of penalties that are tough to kill off. Discipline in our approach to how we play the puck is also a piece to it. Not what we call ‘hope plays.’ Not trying to just ‘hope’ something in there.
“Sometimes the discipline is hitting the net. One of the things we talked about in that first game of the Ohio State series when we had the three-goal lead, we had some really good opportunities that we didn’t capitalize on because we missed the net. Hitting the net is something — from an offensive standpoint — that you can discipline yourselves into having some more control over that opportunity.”
Bowling Green is at a minus-1 goal differential to CCHA foes — 39-38 — in its 12 conference games. The team travels to St. Thomas for a series on Friday and Saturday, followed by a key home series against Bemidji State on Jan. 14 and 15.
“I think we’re doing really well, especially going into the new half,” Stoever said. “As you heard coach Eigner say, it’s a tight race between the standings. We all know the goal here, especially with playoffs coming up soon.”
INJURY UPDATE: Defenseman T.J. Lloyd returned to practice this week, and Eigner said he’s “ready to go” after leaving the team’s game against Yale with an injury following a blocked shot. Eigner said goaltender Zack Rose, who has missed the team’s past five games, is also “100 percent back to healthy” and is ready to play, and Evan Dougherty is nearing a return after recovering from a foot injury.
Dougherty, a senior forward, has not played since the team’s season opener at RPI on Oct. 8.
“Evan Dougherty is as close as he’s been since before he fractured his foot,” Eigner said. “He’s been skating in a red jersey, which is a no-contact jersey, but Evan has been doing everything that everybody else has been doing. We’re not sure he’ll be 100 percent ready to go for this weekend, but the plan is that he’d continue to practice in red, and then next week wear a colored jersey and be ready to go.”
First Published January 7, 2022, 3:38 a.m.
