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Following the 4-point weekend with the Tommies, our Falcons (15-7-6, 4th CCHA) next head west to take on the Augustana Vikings (18-9-3, 3rd CCHA) in a crucial matchup for playoff seeding. Friday night's game will begin at 8:07pm EST, with Saturday night's contest at 7:07pm EST. Both games will be available to stream on Midco, as always.

Team Stats Comparison (CCHA rank):
Goals Per Game: BG - 3.18 (3rd), Augustana - 3.00 (4th)
Goals Allowed Per Game: BG - 2.39 (3rd), Augustana - 2.10 (1st)
Shots on Goal Per Game: BG - 31.75 (2nd), Augustana - 27.63 (6th)
Powerplay: BG - .226 (2nd), Augustana - .233 (1st)
Penalty Kill: BG - .824 (3rd), Augustana - .890 (1st)
Faceoffs: BG - .546 (1st), Augustana - .483 (7th)

GOALIES:

Augustana
Josh Kotai (Jr.) - 28 GP, 2.09 GAA (2nd), .933 SV% (1st)

Bowling Green
Jacob Steinman (Fr.) - 15 GP, 2.16 GAA (3rd), .920 SV% (5th)
Cole Moore (Jr.) - 10 GP, 2.54 GAA, .899 SV%

If we can get to Kotai and limit their special teams, we will have a couple of chances at wins this weekend. Have to do better staying out of the box and keeping our best guys available, but confident in what this team can do at full strength. Time to be road (BG) warriors and shoot for 6 points this weekend against a really good team.

Go Falcons!

The league gave Gus another 1-game suspension for the hit on Braccini. He sits this Friday, back Saturday.

https://ccha.com/news/2026/2/11/stjernb ... story.aspx

TalonsUpPuckDown wrote: ↑Wed Feb 11, 2026 4:11 pm The league gave Gus another 1-game suspension for the hit on Braccini. He sits this Friday, back Saturday.

https://ccha.com/news/2026/2/11/stjernb ... story.aspx

Someone explain this to me. He didn’t play last Saturday night either. Is this an additional game worth of suspension? He got tossed in the first period on Friday night and will essentially miss 3 games now for one hit?

mbenecke wrote: ↑Wed Feb 11, 2026 4:29 pm

TalonsUpPuckDown wrote: ↑Wed Feb 11, 2026 4:11 pm The league gave Gus another 1-game suspension for the hit on Braccini. He sits this Friday, back Saturday.

https://ccha.com/news/2026/2/11/stjernb ... story.aspx

Someone explain this to me. He didn’t play last Saturday night either. Is this an additional game worth of suspension? He got tossed in the first period on Friday night and will essentially miss 3 games now for one hit?

Yes, because it was on a "Tommie," and we dint hit those guys.

But seriously, swinging your stick like a baseball bat into someone's face is more of a reckless play, but that's only good for 2 minutes and a failed challenge.

Also of note, Augustana has lost their captain for the remainder of the season due to injury, so naturally.....

And why wait until Wednesday for this? Willy said in his presser yesterday Goose was back in the lineup for the weekend. Something smells fishy here.

pdt1081 wrote: ↑Wed Feb 11, 2026 4:30 pm

mbenecke wrote: ↑Wed Feb 11, 2026 4:29 pm

TalonsUpPuckDown wrote: ↑Wed Feb 11, 2026 4:11 pm The league gave Gus another 1-game suspension for the hit on Braccini. He sits this Friday, back Saturday.

https://ccha.com/news/2026/2/11/stjernb ... story.aspx

Someone explain this to me. He didn’t play last Saturday night either. Is this an additional game worth of suspension? He got tossed in the first period on Friday night and will essentially miss 3 games now for one hit?

Yes, because it was on a "Tommie," and we dint hit those guys.

But seriously, swinging your stick like a baseball bat into someone's face is more of a reckless play, but that's only good for 2 minutes and a failed challenge.

Also of note, Augustana has lost their captain for the remainder of the season due to injury, so naturally.....

It was a vicious hit, no two ways about it despite that fact that Braccini had his head down while coming across the middle of the ice. The powers that be are trying to legislate those types of hits out of the game for player safety so it's not a total surprise an additional suspension was handed down. The Bemidji Pioneer beat reporter, Jared Rubado, has been on what could be considered a public anti-Stjernberg crusade for at least the past two weeks. In print he's used every word possible to describe Gus except goon (standards, I guess). On various podcasts he is batting 1.000 in finding a way to shoehorn Gus' penalty minutes vs. games played vs. the next highest penalty getter (grammar?) into whatever conversation is available. Gus is now a marked man. From here on in if he has bad breath when he breathes on a guy it'll be 2 min unsportsmanlike.

With all that said, Ian Duncan would have been given the keys to the city of Bowling Green for a hit like that back in the day. The game has changed.

Edit: I now recall hearing Willy say Gus was good for the weekend. Yeah, this it's weird it took until Wednesday afternoon for the suspension to come down.

TalonsUpPuckDown wrote: ↑Wed Feb 11, 2026 5:00 pm

pdt1081 wrote: ↑Wed Feb 11, 2026 4:30 pm

mbenecke wrote: ↑Wed Feb 11, 2026 4:29 pm

TalonsUpPuckDown wrote: ↑Wed Feb 11, 2026 4:11 pm The league gave Gus another 1-game suspension for the hit on Braccini. He sits this Friday, back Saturday.

https://ccha.com/news/2026/2/11/stjernb ... story.aspx

Someone explain this to me. He didn’t play last Saturday night either. Is this an additional game worth of suspension? He got tossed in the first period on Friday night and will essentially miss 3 games now for one hit?

Yes, because it was on a "Tommie," and we dint hit those guys.

But seriously, swinging your stick like a baseball bat into someone's face is more of a reckless play, but that's only good for 2 minutes and a failed challenge.

Also of note, Augustana has lost their captain for the remainder of the season due to injury, so naturally.....

It was a vicious hit, no two ways about it despite that fact that Braccini had his head down while coming across the middle of the ice. The powers that be are trying to legislate those types of hits out of the game for player safety so it's not a total surprise an additional suspension was handed down. The Bemidji Pioneer beat reporter, Jared Rubado, has been on what could be considered a public anti-Stjernberg crusade for at least the past two weeks. In print he's used every word possible to describe Gus except goon (standards, I guess). On various podcasts he is batting 1.000 in finding a way to shoehorn Gus' penalty minutes vs. games played vs. the next highest penalty getter (grammar?) into whatever conversation is available. Gus is now a marked man. From here on in if he has bad breath when he breathes on a guy it'll be 2 min unsportsmanlike.

With all that said, Ian Duncan would have been given the keys to the city of Bowling Green for a hit like that back in the day. The game has changed.

Edit: I now recall hearing Willy say Gus was good for the weekend. Yeah, this it's weird it took until Wednesday afternoon for the suspension to come down.

Goose literally just stopped and let the player skate into him. He didn't take a full step in his direction.

pdt1081 wrote: ↑Wed Feb 11, 2026 5:36 pm

TalonsUpPuckDown wrote: ↑Wed Feb 11, 2026 5:00 pm

pdt1081 wrote: ↑Wed Feb 11, 2026 4:30 pm

mbenecke wrote: ↑Wed Feb 11, 2026 4:29 pm

TalonsUpPuckDown wrote: ↑Wed Feb 11, 2026 4:11 pm The league gave Gus another 1-game suspension for the hit on Braccini. He sits this Friday, back Saturday.

https://ccha.com/news/2026/2/11/stjernb ... story.aspx

Someone explain this to me. He didn’t play last Saturday night either. Is this an additional game worth of suspension? He got tossed in the first period on Friday night and will essentially miss 3 games now for one hit?

Yes, because it was on a "Tommie," and we dint hit those guys.

But seriously, swinging your stick like a baseball bat into someone's face is more of a reckless play, but that's only good for 2 minutes and a failed challenge.

Also of note, Augustana has lost their captain for the remainder of the season due to injury, so naturally.....

It was a vicious hit, no two ways about it despite that fact that Braccini had his head down while coming across the middle of the ice. The powers that be are trying to legislate those types of hits out of the game for player safety so it's not a total surprise an additional suspension was handed down. The Bemidji Pioneer beat reporter, Jared Rubado, has been on what could be considered a public anti-Stjernberg crusade for at least the past two weeks. In print he's used every word possible to describe Gus except goon (standards, I guess). On various podcasts he is batting 1.000 in finding a way to shoehorn Gus' penalty minutes vs. games played vs. the next highest penalty getter (grammar?) into whatever conversation is available. Gus is now a marked man. From here on in if he has bad breath when he breathes on a guy it'll be 2 min unsportsmanlike.

With all that said, Ian Duncan would have been given the keys to the city of Bowling Green for a hit like that back in the day. The game has changed.

Edit: I now recall hearing Willy say Gus was good for the weekend. Yeah, this it's weird it took until Wednesday afternoon for the suspension to come down.

Goose literally just stopped and let the player skate into him. He didn't take a full step in his direction.

I’m not so sure about the standing still part but on the broader issues you and I are aligned.

Less then 5 minutes in and 9 seconds into a powerplay Falcons up 1-0

Looked good for the last 15 min. Moore made big saves when he needed to. Kotai is keeping them in it. It’s a goaltender dual.

We now need to survive our worst period.

Shots are 27-8 after one???

I can see how their goaltender leads the country in saves. We had a lot of shots in that period….but maybe not quite as many as they gave us credit for.

The impressive 1st period stat was Zero penalties on us, that's correct zero penalties in the first.

unfalconbelievable wrote: ↑Fri Feb 13, 2026 9:03 pm The impressive 1st period stat was Zero penalties on us, that's correct zero penalties in the first.

And then they mistook Martin for Stjernberg. Ref's gonna s**t himself tomorrow when he realizes the difference.

Solid effort so far. Augie likes to create off the rush and BG is choking off the neutral zone, forcing a lot of dump-ins which isn't the Vikings game. As a former goaltender, enjoy watching Kotai play. He's minimum effort. BG needs to get some traffic if they want the next goal.