Bowling Green’s hockey team has fared well in shootouts.
The Falcons are 10-4 in the four seasons the Central Collegiate Hockey Association
has used shootouts.
The shootouts, which are essentially penalty shots, are used if a game remains tied
after a five-minute overtime.
“I like shootouts, win or lose,” Falcon coach Chris Bergeron said.
BG is 5-3 in shootouts during Bergeron’s two seasons, including a 3-1 record this
season.
“I don’t think fans come to the game in hopes of seeing a shootout, but fans enjoy
the shootout and I enjoy it,” Bergeron said.
But there are those who don’t like the shootouts because games are being decided by a
skills competition.
All games ending in a shootout are counted as ties since the CCHA is the only of the
five leagues to use a shootout. By counting those games as ties, the shootouts
don’t impact the NCAA selection process.
Teams receive three points for a regulation or OT win, two points for a shootout win
and one point for a shootout loss. No points are awarded for a regulation or OT
loss.
The other leagues award two points for a regulation or OT win, one point for a tie
and no points for a regulation or OT loss.
Shootouts also are used by the NHL and Canadian major junior hockey, which compete
with U.S. college hockey for players.
The shootout has a bigger impact in the CCHA because it only plays 28 league games,
compared to 82 in the NHL and approximately 65 in Canadian major junior hockey.
“Why not use the shootout? That’s what our competition does,” Bergeron said. “If
we’re trying to get kids to come to our side, let’s do what they’re doing.”
How to break ties will be a major topic of discussion this spring during the national
college hockey meetings.
The NCAA uses a two-year cycle for rules changes and next season starts a new
two-year cycle.
Among the numerous proposals are to go to an NHL style 4-on-4 overtime or extend the
overtime to 10 minutes. Overtime currently is 5-on-5.
CORNER: BG played well last weekend in 2-2 and 1-1 ties against Ohio State last
weekend, leading some to believe the program has turned the corner.
The Falcons, idle this weekend, are 6-13-5 overall and 1-11-4-3 in the CCHA.
“I’ll leave that to the people who want to give an opinion whether (we’ve) turned the
corner or not,” Bergeron said. “We’re in the middle of turning it, but what if
things don’t go well the rest of the way? Are we turning around again? We’re a
work in progress and if other people want to say we’ve turned the corner, they
can say that. I don’t know how to measure it that way.
“Once we get to a bar, we’re going to raise it. I expect this thing to be great. Once
we get to great, then we’re going to raise the bar even higher.”
PLETSCH: BG freshman left wing Ted Pletsch has played well of late, totaling two
goals and one assist and a physical presence in the last four games.
The 6-foot-3, 200-pounder assisted on BG’s goal in Sunday’s 1-1 tie against Ohio
State. The goal came with just 56 seconds left in the game.
“He’s a big guy. He skates well for a big guy,” Bergeron said. “He’s being hard on
pucks, on people. When he slashes through the open ice … and does everything
hard, he’s going to be everything we want him to be and then some. He’s such a
nice kid, we want him to get a little bit of a growl on. If he does that more
consistently, he’ll make more of an impact on our lineup.”
RELIEF: Cam Wojtala’s goal against OSU Sunday ended a streak of 10 games without a
point for the freshman forward. He’s one of BG’s best players.
“It’s nice to get the monkey off your back,” said Wojtala, who has four goals and 10
assists in 22 games.
Like many of BG’s 18 freshmen and sophomores, Wojtala is being asked to play a major
role for the Falcons.
“We’re young team and we just have to be ready to execute in whatever role we’re in,”
Wojtala said.
