The ninth ranked Bowling Green hockey team will look to earn an NCAA tournament bid on Friday against fourth ranked Michigan Tech in their WCHA Semifinal playoff matchup.
The Falcons will play in the WCHA Final Five for the second consecutive year in Minnesota.
“I’m a firm believer that the more times you are in situations like this, the better you’ll be the next time,” said head coach Chris Bergeron. “We are going there with the mindset that there’s a championship at stake and we are playing for something. We’ll just leave the national tournament conversation there. What we can control is ourselves and that starts Friday.”
The other WCHA Final Five semifinal matchup is between second ranked Minnesota State and Ferris State. The winner of that game will face the winner of the BG and Michigan Tech game Saturday, in the WCHA Championship game.
The winner of the WCHA Championship game will secure an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, and the Broadmoor trophy.
The Michigan Tech Huskies enter the weekend with an overall record of 28-8-2 and have won 12 of their last 14 games. The Huskies can potentially secure a number one seed in the NCAA tournament.
“We look at them as a team that we want to be like. They’ve been a the top-10 team all year long,” Bergeron said.
BG has an overall record of 23-10-5 and are 17-8-3 in conference play. The Falcons can earn an at-large bid if they do not win the WCHA tournament.
The last time Michigan Tech and BG faced each other, both teams split the weekend series last January in Michigan. The Falcons lost 3-4 in their first matchup, and won 3-2 against the Huskies the next game.
Michigan Tech leads the all-time series between the two teams with a 10-8-2 advantage. In last year’s WCHA tournament, BG swept Michigan Tech in the first round.
In last weekend’s WCHA first round playoff matchup, BG swept Northern Michigan at the BGSU Ice Arena.
In Friday’s playoff opener, the Falcons won 3-2 in overtime when Tyler Spezia scored with less than 30 seconds left in overtime. The Falcons won 4-1 on Saturday night to advance to the WCHA Final Five.
During Bergeron’s five year coaching era at BG, the Falcons have won six best-of-three playoff series. They are the only team in the country that has won at least one best-of-three playoff series in each of the past five years.
Friday’s semifinal matchup against Michigan Tech will begin at 5:07 p.m. at the Xcel Energy Center in Minnesota. If the Falcons advance to the WCHA championship game, they will play on Saturday at 7:07 p.m.
“The mindset is that we’ve got to play our game. We need to be hard on pucks, we need to defend hard and be strong on special teams,” Bergeron said.
