Flashes from Gordon: Time for BG to ‘close mouths … play better’

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Random thoughts while wishing that just once we could have a major figure skating competition where the
skaters don’t whine about the judging:
CRUNCH TIME: Bowling Green’s hockey team faces an interesting final two weekends of the regular season.

Unfortunately for BG, it’s for all the wrong reasons.
Even though it’s hard to believe the Falcons could miss the Western Hockey Association playoffs, it’s not
unrealistic to think it might happen – given BG is 1-4-2 in its last seven games, and seems unable or
unwilling to solve its problems.
The Falcons play well enough to stay in games and even hold leads in the third period, but they also just
play poorly enough to lose.
Forwards, defensemen and goalies share the blame. The same mistakes being made in games have been made in
practice. The coaches set the right tone, but it’s up to the players to make a difference.
BG, fourth in the WCHA coaches poll, was a confident team early in the season and believed it could
contend for a league championship.
Now, the confidence is gone and the Falcons are 8-11-4 in their last 23 games. They’ve become
underachievers.
"I don’t know if I can give a good answer on that," BG junior defenseman Mike Sullivan said
when asked why the same mistakes continue to be made for such a long period of time.
"We need all 20 guys in the lineup to perform well. Some nights we have 10. Some nights we have
five. Some nights we have 15. We need a full 20. If we do that, we can have better results.
The Falcons are only 9-8-1 when scoring the game’s first goal, 11-6-2 when leading after two periods and
1-3-3 when tied after two periods.
Learning how to win is part of the process to restoring the Falcon program to a championship level.
But one has to question the team’s leadership.
Although the Falcons only have two seniors among their regulars, they still have plenty of veterans to
lead the way and demand accountability from every player.
"Definitely. Definitely," Sullivan said when asked if the players were fed up with the
situation. "We have to stop talking about making it positive. We have to really make sure that we
close our mouths and play. We can’t sit around and talk about how much we want to play better. We have
to go out there and play better."
If the Falcons play well, they could win twice at Northern Michigan this weekend and sweep Bemidji State
at home next weekend, and then become a force in the WCHA playoffs.
But it’s not unreasonable to think BG might not win again and missing the playoffs is a real possibility.

"Everything that’s happened to this point, we have to throw it out the door," Sullivan said.
"We have to forget about all of the results, positive and negative, because it’s like a new
season."
BG is in a three-way tie for fifth place in the 10-team league with 24 points. It’s just four points out
of third, but it’s only three points ahead of ninth-place NMU.
The top eight teams make the playoffs, with the top four hosting quarterfinal series.
Six teams could end up tied for third in WCHA with 32 points. A team with 27 points could finish ninth
and miss the playoffs.
"This series can really shoot us up the standings or it can bring us down," Sullivan said of
NMU. "Right now, we go in fresh, have a good week of practice, and go there on a business plan, to
get two victories."
FULL DISCLOSURE: One can only shake their head at the haphazard way the Mid-American Conference announces
or doesn’t announce the point totals in its various preseason coaches polls.
The latest example came recently when the point totals were announced in baseball, but not in softball.

Softball, at least, did announce the number of first-place votes each team received.
Are softball coaches, among other coaches in the MAC, so thin-skinned and so sensitive as to how their
programs are perceived that they don’t want the point totals made public?
Anyone interested in the sports where the vote totals aren’t announced knows how good or bad each program
is. Keeping the vote totals out of the public won’t keep the bad programs a secret.
The MAC needs to announce the point totals in all sports.

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