In the Bemidji State series at home on Jan. 10 and 11, it felt as if BGSU hockey played better than the Beavers. There was only about eight minutes of the 120 minutes weekend that BSU outplayed Bowling Green, the final three minutes of the first game and final five minutes of the second game during which six-on-five hockey provided the beavers three goals and overtime points. 

That was the sixth ranked team in the CCHA, Ferris State was the eighth, and yet BG somehow performed worse, allowing an outright win to FSU for a David vs. Goliath win for BG’s rivals. 

There can be no complaints about the first two periods of either game, five goals scored, and none given up, borderline perfect hockey. 

The second third of the games, however, brought struggles.  

The Falcons served four penalties in the second period of the Friday game, eight of the first 10 minutes of the frame spent shorthanded. Therefore, the last 10 minutes were dominated by FSU, adding two goals and bringing the game within one. 

BGSU did not suffer penalty trouble in the second period of the second game, but with a 2-1 lead midway through the period they had a five-minute major powerplay that they failed to score on, wasting a prime opportunity in a game they lost by one score. 

They were also outscored 3-2 in the third period of the series, the most egregious swinging the second game toward FSU with two goals scored in the third to win the game. Again, look back on that five-minute powerplay for an opportunity to score that extra goal they needed. 

In a bad weekend, one player and one line were the infrastructure of a team that struggled to close out the games. 

With Christian Stoever having not played Saturday, Ryan O’Hara is the hottest BG player with six goals and four assists in the new year (three series). Against Ferris State he had a goal in the first game as well as two helpers in the second, taking six shots and winning all nine faceoffs he took, many in the powerplay. 

As with almost every game this season, he has truly driven the first line, being the best skater on the ice for much of the last two months, including one of the top scorers in the CCHA. He has surpassed last year’s point total already and is on pace to break his 30-point personal record set in 2022-23. 

One of the main reasons BG was able to hold onto each game as they did was because of their first line of defensemen, Dalton Norris and Gustav Stjernberg. 

Norris scored only one point in the series but was a threat constantly on powerplays as well as playing fantastic defense in the BG zone. He has 11 points this season, already tying his season high in 2022-23. 

Stjernberg has been equally amazing, similarly scoring only one point but playing immaculately on the blue line and also being a slap-shot threat. He constantly battles with Norris for the most points by a defenseman, three goals and seven assists this season. 

Together they may be one of the better defense duos in the CCHA. Of BG defensemen you can argue Stjernberg is the best and Norris second defensively and Norris is the best and Stjernberg second offensively. They were on the ice for six of the seven BG goals this weekend. 

They each are the leading time-on-ice skaters for BG. On Friday they each recorded team-leading 24:10 of ice time and on Saturday Norris recorded over 21 minutes (four minutes of penalty hurt his time) and Stjernberg an outrageous 27:50 playing the majority of both powerplays and both penalty kills and in the last seven minutes of the game 

In one instance in the Saturday game, they played four minutes of the five-minute powerplay and, less than two minutes later, playing most of a two-minute penalty kill. The two are impossible to not play on both special teams and in the final minutes of the game. 

Two straight weekends Bowling Green left points on the table that they should have taken.  The second FSU game a bad loss with a blown 3-0 and 4-2 lead in the second Bemidji State game, five points in the last two weeks that would have brought them to second in the conference, one point from Minnesota State. 

They look to close out in their hardest remaining weekend of the season against Augustana at home on Jan. 24 and 25. Falcon Media Sports Network’s Ben Corak will have the call 15 minutes before game time on WBGU 88.1 FM.