The direction of BGSU hockey is very promising, both in the standings and on the ice.

In the standings, BG rises with some great help from Michigan Tech, who choked away five points to Bemidji State at home and fell down to fourth in the rankings with arguably the toughest remaining Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) schedule.

If Bowling Green took two wins against St. Thomas (they played well enough for both), they would be competing for the number one spot in the conference, only .060 points behind ranked Minnesota State.

Nevertheless, they sit .028 points behind Augustana in the second spot, who plays Michigan Tech this coming week; MTU also plays Ferris State and St. Thomas away to end the season. For the best chance at staying in the home playoffs, they need at least three of four wins against

Bemidji State and Lake Superior, which are certainly beatable CCHA teams.

Three games is very doable, considering how BG has played over the last few weeks. Not only did they dominate Northern Michigan a week ago and played even with #17 Augustana the week before, but they also truly dominated St. Thomas defensively and offensively.

It’s a weird sentiment to say they dominated when they split three points, but their 2-1 loss came on the heels of a 57-save, one-goal allowed performance by Tommie senior goaltender Jake Sibell. It literally took the best game of his career to beat BG, and they still kept it a one-score game.

There is truly a tall task to find a criticism from BG’s play against St. Thomas, yet this late in the CCHA, the quality of play matters less than the outcomes. The win column doesn’t care that you played great in two losses to Augustana, one to Bemidji State and another to St. Thomas.

Although if they won only two of those games, they should/could have you sit comfortably in first.