The 13th ranked BG hockey team will finish the regular season with a series at home against Alabama-Huntsville this weekend. The Falcons are locked into a three-seed for the Western Collegiate Hockey Association tournament, and will host the sixth-seed for a best-of-three playoff series Mar. 13-15.
BG will either host Bemidji State, Northern Michigan or Ferris State for that first round series. Currently, Bemidji State is fourth with 27 points, Northern Michigan is fifth with 26 points and Ferris State is sixth with 25 points.
BG’s overall record of 19-10-5 is the program’s best start to a season since 1995-1996. Alabama-Huntsville enters the series with an 8-22-4 overall record, and 7-18-1 in
WCHA play.
The Chargers are currently tied with Lake Superior State for seventh place in the WCHA, and eligible to clinch a conference playoff spot this weekend. Both teams are three points ahead of Alaska-Anchorage for the final playoff spot in the conference.
“I want our mindset to be right heading into the playoffs. We’re going to treat it as a playoff weekend as far as the coaching staff goes,” head coach Chris Bergeron said.
BG is 11-3-1 all-time against Alabama-Huntsville, including two road victories on the road last October. The Falcons outscored them 9-1 during
that series.
The Falcons are coming off a weekend against Alaska-Anchorage on the road with a series split. However, BG lost 6-1 on Saturday night.
“We’re not going to dwell on it. It was another weekend, we were able to find a way to get two points out of the four,” Bergeron said.
The Falcons have lost four of their last five games, and two of them came via a sweep at home against Northern Michigan.
“We haven’t been as consistent as we were in the first half [of the season],” Bergeron said.
This Saturday will be senior night and the final regular season game of the season for the Falcons. BG will honor the six seniors on its team.
“That’s a special time for our seniors to celebrate their career, but this is business for us. We need to make sure our heads are on right knowing that our opponent’s are going to come in here guns a-blazing,” Bergeron said.
The Falcon seniors include Adam Berkle, Dan DeSalvo, Rusty Hafner, Connor Kucera, Ted Pletsch and Mike Sullivan.
BG’s games against Alabama-Huntsville on Friday and Saturday night will begin at 7:07 p.m. at the BGSU Ice Arena.
