The BG hockey team can potentially clinch a first-round home playoff series this weekend.
The Falcons sit at eighth place in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association standings, the lowest possible seed to have a first round series at home. They are five points ahead of ninth-place Northern Michigan, this weekend’s opponent.
Should the Falcons sweep Northern Michigan this weekend, BG would mathematically clinch a first round home playoff series.
The Falcons are six points ahead of 10th place Michigan. The Wolverines would need to win out and have BG finish, at best, 2-2 during the final four games to force a tiebreaker scenario. Even then, BG would own the tiebreaker with a better conference winning percentage.
“It’s a good position to be in,” said BG head coach Chris Bergeron. “We’ve put ourselves in a good spot with our results in the second half.
“We’ve talked a little bit about playoff mentality [in terms of] not taking tomorrow for granted, but we’re not trying to get too dramatic for it.”
After starting the season 0-7-2 at home, BG has won six straight games at the BGSU Ice Arena. That recent success at home could potentially give the Falcons a big advantage should they secure a first-round home series.
“It’d be awesome to get a home series here,” said BG forward Mark Cooper. “I don’t think we’ve had one since [Bergeron] has been here. Our fans have been really good, and we’ve been really good at home [during] the second half, so I think that’d be a really positive thing.”
Senior night
The team will celebrate senior night on Saturday, the final home regular season game of the year.
The senior class began the 2009-10 season with 10 members. However, with transfers, cuts and players leaving the team it is down to four — defensemen Bobby Shea and Ryan Peltoma, forward Marc Rodriguez and goalie Andrew Hammond.
“It’s been a long four years with some not so good times and some really good times,” Peltoma said. “But it’s been an awesome four years. Hopefully we’ll be able to end it on a good note.”
This senior class was the final recruiting class that had association with three different coaches.
They committed to play for Scott Paluch, who left the program following the 2008-09 season. They played one year for interim head coach Dennis Williams before Bergeron took over the program in 2010.
“I knew that I wanted to come here,” Shea said. “I communicated with [former defensemen] Ian Ruel and Max Grover because they were coming in at the same time as I was. They said they were going to stick with it and I wanted to play for the coaching staff. I committed to the school because I wanted to be here.”
However, how many of the four who will play this weekend is up in the air.
Hammond is still day-to-day with a knee injury, and Rodriguez hasn’t played since Jan. 26 at Miami.
Welcome Ralfs
On top of being senior night, Saturday will also be the first game freshman defenseman Ralfs Freibergs is eligible to play this season.
He was suspended 33 games by the NCAA during the summer after it was determined he played a professional schedule in Latvia in 2009 and 2010 while the Latvian junior team was preparing for the World Junior Championships.
Despite the suspension, he was allowed to practice with the team.
“He has been one of our six best defensemen from the beginning of the year, we just haven’t been able to play him,” Bergeron said. “It’s a hard decision to make because these other guys have played in games and contributed to this point.
“He’s handled this year as well as he could handle it … I don’t see him not playing, because he makes our team better.”
In his final two years of junior hockey during the 2010-11 and 2011-12 seasons, he posted 98 points in 113 games.
“I’m just so excited about it,” Freibergs said. “I’ve been waiting seven months; it’s my first year [at BG] and I lost almost the whole year. I’m excited but at the same time I’m nervous because I don’t know what to expect.”
