All eyes were on the standings as Bowling Green hockey (18-9-7, 15-7-4) made the trip to Houghton, Michigan, to play the No. 16 Michigan Tech Huskies (21-12-3, 16-7-3) in the final weekend of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) regular season.
Following a 1-0 victory on Friday night, the Orange and Brown stood in fifth place in the standings, narrowly outside the top four position needed to claim home ice for the first round of the CCHA Mason Cup playoffs, but were one point behind Michigan Tech, Minnesota State (18-9-7, 14-7-5) and St. Thomas (18-11-5, 15-7-4), while being three points behind first place Augustana (20-10-4, 14-8-3).
With the top five teams so close in the standings, all five had an opportunity to claim the MacNaughton Cup (CCHA Regular Season Champion) going into the final game of the season.
In BGSU’s game, Jackson Niedermayer served as the hero of the night as the senior defenseman scored the overtime winner to give the Falcons the 4-3 overtime victory and two points towards the standings.
After the dust had settled and all the games around the conference had concluded, Minnesota State finished in first place in the CCHA standings to claim the MacNaughton Cup with 51 points. St. Thomas and Augustana finished with 50 points apiece, with the Tommies taking the tiebreaker over the Vikings to grab the second seed.
Finally, BGSU and the Huskies both finished with 49 points, and the Huskies earned the tiebreaker to take the fourth seed and home ice advantage.
According to the CCHA rules, “When 2 or more teams are tied in the standings and they have played an equal number home and away games between all tied teams, the seeding for the CCHA Tournament shall be determined by the team with the greatest number of head-to-head regulation wins between all tied teams.”
While the Orange and Brown did win the head-to-head matchup over the Huskies, the CCHA rules explain that this first tiebreaker only applies when the two teams played an equal number of home and away games between the two of them. Since BG and Michigan Tech only played two games in Houghton and none in Bowling Green, the tiebreaker doesn’t apply.
The second tiebreaker states that, “If not determined by (the first tiebreaker), the seeding for the CCHA Tournament shall be determined by the team with the greatest number of regulation wins.”
In conference play, the Huskies won 16 games in regulation to the Falcons’ 15, which gave the Black and Gold the nod for fourth place in the standings.
Pouring salt into the wound of the Falcons after narrowly missing the opportunity to host a playoff series at the Slater Family Ice Arena, Bowling Green will need to return to Houghton, Michigan, next weekend as they open up the CCHA Mason Cup Playoffs by facing Michigan Tech, the third year in a row that the Huskies and Falcons open the playoffs against each other.
Head coach Dennis Williams and the Falcons will hit the road next weekend as they open up play in the CCHA Mason Cup playoffs at Michigan Tech’s John Macinnes Student Ice Arena in Houghton, Michigan.
Falcon Media Sports Network will have a live broadcast of both games on WBGU 88.1 FM.
