BGSU hockey (2-3-1, 2-1-1) is coming off a weekend where the Falcons secured two points toward the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) standings after falling to the Bemidji State Beavers (5-4-1, 3-0-1) in a shootout and overtime losses during last weekend’s series.
This weekend, Bowling Green will travel to Mankato, Minnesota, to challenge the Minnesota State Mavericks (4-2-2, 1-1-0) at MSU’s Mayo Clinic Health System Event Center on Nov. 7 and 8.
During the weekly press conference held on Nov. 4, Bowling Green head coach Dennis “Willi” Williams discussed his team’s series against Bemidji, his team’s upcoming series against Minnesota State, the importance of continuous improvement, and what his team needs to do to be successful against Minnesota State.
Here are the Falcon Four takeaways from the press conference:
Continuing to learn
Coach Willi has emphasized the importance of improvement throughout the beginning of the season. As the Falcons have begun to show how much they have improved by sweeping Lake Superior State (3-4-1, 0-2-0) and securing two points against Bemidji, Coach Williams continues to emphasize the importance of improvement throughout the season.
“Every week we’re learning. Doesn’t matter if it’s January, February, March,” said Williams. “If we’re not learning and growing, we’re gonna just stay stagnant and lose.”
As the season progresses, Williams and his coaching staff will continue to push the Falcons out of their comfort zone in order for the team to learn and improve.
“There will never be a week, going into it, where we’re not trying to push our guys out of their comfort zone,” said Williams.
Bemidji State
Despite falling to the Beavers in the shootout after drawing 4-4 on Friday and losing 3-2 in overtime on Saturday, the Falcons’ series against Bemidji State did provide some good things for the team to build on while also providing two very entertaining games for fans at the Slater Family Ice Arena.
“You gotta pull out what we did well and we did a lot well,” said Williams. “I think for probably four and a half of the six periods we played some really good hockey. I had an NHL scout tell me that for the last 10, 12 minutes of that game, he just put his stuff away and watched cause it was so entertaining.”
Despite their series only being the second CCHA series of the season for both teams, the games carried a playoff-esque atmosphere throughout the weekend.
“It’s the hardest, most physical playoff sell game already watched, and it was,” said Willi. “It wasn’t a game of a regular season game five and six for us and nine and ten for them. There was emotion, there was passion, there was competition, there was hatred, that’s college hockey.
Minnesota State
Looking ahead, BG’s next opponent is the reigning Mason Cup Champions, the Minnesota State Mavericks.
“Now we get the best of the best,” said Willi.
“We’re going into an environment where they play really well. They played great hockey this year. Skill, they got good special teams, good goaltending, they’ve had this for some time. They built, not a really good team there, but a really good program.
Willi continued, “We’re gonna need everybody on board, everybody buying in, rowing in the same direction because even if we do that, it’s not gonna guarantee us a win, but what we want is to try to give us an opportunity to win.”
Coach Williams emphasized that a team effort over individual performances is needed if the Falcons want to succeed against the Mavericks.
“If we’re not all rowing in the same direction or competing together, and if we’re worried about our individual accolades vs team, then we’re not gonna have success out there.”
Dirty goals and defending inside the dots
Coach Williams made a point to state what he wants to see from his team in order to compete with MSU.
From a defensive standpoint, Willi wants to see his team be better between the faceoff dots.
“We gotta (be) harder defending inside the dots. We can’t give teams time and space,” said Willi. “If you give ‘em 10 feet, these guys take 20, and if they have 20 feet on ya, now they have gap and ice on ya and you’re in trouble.”
Offensively, Williams wants to see his team focus on getting dirty goals this weekend.
“Going into this goalie (MSU’s senior goaltender Alex Tracy) this weekend, we’re gonna have to be ready to score on second, third opportunities, and pay a price. I’m watching his (Tracy’s) games there last night, (and) the goals that their opponents have scored, nothing’s been clean on ‘em.”
“It’s gonna be a challenge, but it’s a good challenge. We need that right now.”
