The BG hockey team needs a tie this weekend to earn home ice advantage in the first round of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association tournament. The Falcons enter the weekend series against Northern Michigan with 31 points on the season.
BG trails the first place Minnesota State Mavericks by nine points and second place Michigan Tech by eight points. The Falcons have a nine point lead advantage over Alaska, who is ineligible for the WCHA tournament.
Northern Michigan enters the weekend series with a four-game losing streak and is 11-13-6 overall. The Wildcats are tied for fifth in the WCHA with 20 points on the season.
Last December, BG tied Northern Michigan 5-5 on the road. The following night, the Falcons won 5-0.
BG goalie Chris Nell earned a shutout and Pierre-Luc Mercier and Ben Murphy each scored two goals in the game. However, Northern Michigan has not lost at the BGSU Ice Arena in its previous four games there.
“I really feel that Northern’s really good on the road. This is going to be a tough series. They are a desperate team playing for playoff positioning. It’s going to be a battle. They are a team that will fight you for it every night,” said BG head coach
Chris Bergeron.
The Wildcats are currently ranked seventh in nation in combined special teams percentage. Additionally, they have the 15th best penalty killing unit in the nation at 86.1 percent.
Northern Michigan’s goalie Mathis Dahlstrom, has a .924 save percentage that ranks 23rd in the country. Dahlstrom also has a 2.18 goals against average and four shutouts on
the season.
BG’s 18-7-5 overall record is now the program’s best start to a season since 1986-1987. The team was ranked sixth in the country according to the USCHO.com poll.
Last weekend, the Falcons won 4-1 on Friday at Ferris State. However, the Falcons lost 3-2 in overtime in Saturday’s series finale.
The Falcons were previously unbeaten in 16 games on Saturdays. The team outscored its opponents 47-27 during that streak.
In last Friday’s win, BG goalie Tommy Burke tied his career-high with 43 saves. Brandon Hawkins, Ben Greiner, Brent Tate and Matt Pohlkamp recorded goals in the win.
Mitchell McClain also tallied two assists.
In last Saturday’s game, Ferris State scored two goals in the first period to take an early 2-0 lead. Adam Berkle scored in the second period with an assist from Matt Pohlkamp to cut the lead in half.
Then, in the third period, Ben Murphy scored to tie the game 2-2. Brandon Hawkins had an assist on the play.
However, with 78 seconds left in the overtime period, Ferris State scored to win the game 3-2 and split the weekend series. BG goalie Chris Nell recorded 38 saves in
the loss.
Both games against Northern Michigan this Friday and Saturday will start at 7:07 p.m. BG looks to improve on their 14-5-3 conference record.
