Bowling Green is playing well entering the semifinals of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association Final
Five.
The Falcons who have won five straight and are 18-14-6 overall, face 15th-ranked and second-seeded
Minnesota State (24-13-1) Friday at 2:07 p.m.
Fourth-ranked and top seeded Ferris State (27-9-3) plays sixth-seeded Alaska-Anchorage (18-15-4) in the
second game at 7:07 p.m.
The winners return Saturday night at 7:07 to play for the championship and an automatic berth in the NCAA
playoffs.
The Final Five is at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Mich.
The Falcons are scoring 4.0 goals per game and allowing 2.0 during their winning streak.
In addition, goalie Tommy Burke has been sharp, and the penalty-killing and power-play units have fared
well.
"You can pick any piece of that poison you want, I just don’t know that we want to chew on a lot of
it," MSU coach Mike Hastings said of BG.
"They’re a good team. They’re well-coached. They’re motivated."
BG has played consistently well the last two weekends en route to sweeps of Bemidji State to finish the
regular season and Michigan Tech in the WCHA quarterfinals.
Aside from Burke, BG is receiving contributions from all four of its lines and all six of its defensemen
each game.
"We’re playing a decent game right now, the game we’re doing to need to be play to be successful on
Friday," BG coach Chris Bergeron said.
ON A ROLL: After a 4-7 start, MSU is 20-6-1 in its last 27 games and 10-0-1 in its last 11 games.
The Mavericks, the coaches preseason pick to win the league, lost the WCHA title on the final night of
the season.
"We’ve probably played some of our best hockey over the second half," said Hastings, who is in
his second season. "We weren’t trying to track down Ferris State. We were just trying to get
better."
MSU is second in the WCHA in goals allowed (2.42 per game) and third in scoring (3.18 per game).
"They’re doing everything well," Bergeron said. "They’re a deep group. They’re deep in
goal. The back end (defensemen), there’s a bunch of guys contributing. Up front (forwards), it’s a bunch
of challenges.
REMATCH: BG and MSU split both of their series’ this season, the two series coming during a three-week
span in November.
All four were one-goal games with three going to overtime.
BG’s win at MSU was the Mavericks’ only loss at home this season.
"We’ve developed a little bit of a rivalry," Bergeron said. "The players got a little
crusty with each other on the ice and that’s a good thing. It made for close games. For two teams that
don’t have a history in terms of a rivalry, we developed one in a real short period of time which is
outstanding as we move forward in this league."
The Falcons were without junior captain and standout forward Ryan Carpenter for both series against MSU.
MILESTONES: BG’s 18 wins are its most since the 2008 season when it was 18-21.
The Falcons haven’t had a 20-win season since 1996 when they were 26-14-1.
BG’s last winning record overall came in 1997 when it was 17-16-5.
WHY: The WCHA decided to keep the Final Five as its championship name, even though only four teams are
playing this weekend.
The Final Five was used because the league had five teams and five games at its championship weekend
before college hockey’s massive realignment after last season.
And by continuing to use the Final Five name, it keeps the WCHA’s brand name the same for its league
championship and it allows the league the option of going back to a true Final Five if it decides to
have all 10 teams make the playoffs in the future.
This season, only eight of the 10 teams in the league made the playoffs.
TRAVEL: BG travels to Grand Rapids tonight, and practices at Van Andel Arena Thursday.
TV: All three games in the WCHA Final Five will be shown live on Fox Sports North.
SportsTime Ohio will show the BG-MSU game live and the Ferris-Anchorage game Friday night at 10. It will
air the championship game Sunday night at 10, but Fox College Sports Central will show the championship
game live.
SITE: Van Andel Arena, the home of the American Hockey League’s Grand Rapids Griffins, has a capacity of
10,834.
NCAA: The teams and pairings for the NCAA playoffs will be announced Sunday at noon on ESPNU.
