As the college hockey regular season rolls to its conclusion, all eyes turn to the standings to see which teams will be moving on to the postseason, who they will be facing and, possibly, where they will be traveling to.
Following BGSU hockey’s (16-8-6, 13-6-3) trip to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where they split their series with No. 18 Augustana, the Falcons only have two series remaining before the beginning of the CCHA Mason Cup Playoffs.
After securing a 1-0 victory on Friday night, the Falcons briefly sat in third place before moving back down to fourth place after falling 4-2 in Saturday’s contest.
BG currently sits at fourth place in the CCHA standings with 43 points as they trail Augustana’s 45 points, St. Thomas’ (18-9-3, 15-5-2) 47 points, and first-place Michigan Tech’s (21-10-3, 16-5-3) 48 points.
The Falcons currently lead fifth-place Minnesota State (16-9-5, 12-7-3) by two points.
Under Minnesota State are sixth-place Bemidji State (12-17-3, 10-11-3) with 32 points, seventh-place Lake Superior State (9-19-2, 6-15-1) with 23 points, and eighth-place Ferris State (6-25-1, 5-18-1), which currently holds the last playoff spot with 18 points. Northern Michigan (3-26-1, 3-18-1) currently resides at the bottom of the standings and outside the playoff picture with 12 points.
Despite their current position, Bowling Green still has the opportunity to move up in the standings and even potentially stake a claim for the MacNaughton Cup, which is given to the CCHA regular season champion each season.
Michigan Tech and Augustana have each played 24 of the 26 CCHA conference games, while BGSU, St. Thomas, and Minnesota State have only played 22. This means that the Falcons, Tommies and Mavericks have two additional games to collect points compared to the Huskies and Vikings.
Additionally, the Falcons’ remaining two series are both against teams that they are battling with for positions among the top five teams in the CCHA standings.
This weekend, BGSU will host Minnesota State in their last home series of the regular season before wrapping up said regular season in Houghton, Michigan, for a series against Michigan Tech.
Depending on how the next two weekends work out, the Falcons could work their way all the way to first place in the conference or fall to fifth place and lose home ice advantage during the first round.
While the Falcons have proven all season that they can compete and beat some of the best teams in the CCHA, simply competing will not be enough if BG wants to move up in the rankings. BGSU can not simply split its two upcoming series if it wants to maintain its current position, let alone move up.
The Falcons will need to take more points than their opponent in at least one of their upcoming series if they hope to move up and hopefully secure home ice advantage for multiple rounds going into the CCHA Mason Cup Playoffs.
Head coach Dennis Williams and the Falcons will have the chance to move up the standings this weekend as they host Minnesota State at the Slater Family Ice Arena in the final home series of the 2025-26 regular season.
Falcon Media Sports Network’s Ben Corak will have the call of both games on Feb. 20 and 21 and will be joined by Kevin Hutchinson and Vaughn Ullom over the course of the weekend on WBGU 88.1 FM.
