@ Bemidji (2/22-2/23)

[mbenecke]

Fresh off a huge 8-0 win on Friday and a disappointing tie on Saturday night, our now 15th-ranked Falcons look to get back on track this weekend in Minnesota. We're still in the thick of a hotly contested race for playoff position, currently tied with Lake Superior State for 2nd place in the WCHA. Only 3 points separate 2nd place from 5th place, so it is absolutely imperative that we just keep winning games. Scoreboard watching season is already underway, and I am looking forward to an exciting finish to this playoff race. My hope is that we can secure the 2 seed so that we can be guaranteed to host playoff games through at least the semifinals, should we advance.

The next challenger in front of us is Bemidji State (15-12-5). Currently sitting just 3 points behind us in the conference standings, they have come on strong as of late, going 3-1-2 over the span of their last 6 and with just 3 total losses since January 1. The last time we saw them was in the beginning of January in our building, where they beat us 3-2 on Thursday and we beat them 3-1 on Friday. I expect this to be another hard-fought series, but it's time for our boys to either kick the door down or prepare for next year. There's absolutely no room left for error, so if this team is going to be what it appeared it could be at the beginning of the year, it's time they stop taking no for an answer.

Goaltender Stats

Bemidji
Zach Driscoll: GAA - 2.14, SV% - .915, 10–6-3
Henry Johnson: GAA - 2.05, SV% - .914, 5-5-2

BGSU
Ryan Bednard: GAA - 1.81, SV% - .926, 14-5-3
Eric Dop: GAA - 1.34, SV% - .948, 5-3-1

Bemidji’s Last 6:
vs. NMU W, 3-0
vs. NMU T, 2-2
@ Ferris W, 6-1
@ Ferris T, 3-3
@ LSSU W, 5-3
@ LSSU L, 5-2

Leave your predictions and thoughts for this weekend below. Go Falcons!

Falcon Hockey Weekly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUcvbLRCxvI" target="_blank

[jpfalcon09]

Another split. Bemidji is playing better hockey right now and they gave BG all they could handle in that series last month, BG could have easily lost both of those games. This weekend is much more important for conference seeding than anything at-large bid related. The prospect of traveling for both the 2nd round and final game will make things extremely difficult. Getting 2nd place in the conference needs to be the #1 goal.

[mbenecke]

Getting 2nd place in the conference needs to be the #1 goal.

I agree very much with this sentiment. We need to secure a home semifinal series this year. That's not kicking the door down like we all wanted, but it would be a clear step up from past years. And in that situation, we're only one series upset of Mankato from hosting a championship game in Bowling Green, Ohio, with an NCAA tournament bid on the line...

[AZIce]

Looks like they flew to Bemidji.......interesting. Usually everything but Alaska is a bus ride and they flew to the WCHA Championship game @ Tech a few years ago.

Hopefully, it helps them play better. We really need a sweep bad.

https://twitter.com/BGFalconHockey

[mbenecke]

Looks like they flew to Bemidji.......interesting. Usually everything but Alaska is a bus ride and they flew to the WCHA Championship game @ Tech a few years ago.

Hopefully, it helps them play better. We really need a sweep bad.

https://twitter.com/BGFalconHockey

They flew up to Tech a few weeks ago, too. Pretty interesting, to me. I would assume Mr. Slater let them use his plane like they had previously.

[mbenecke]

It's GAME DAY. We need a sweep this weekend. Time to finally get it done, boys.

[mbenecke]

Getting 2nd place in the conference needs to be the #1 goal.

To build off this earlier statement, I was doing a little standings-scanning this morning and pretty much realized how important the 2-seed would be. Finishing with the 2 basically guarantees we would host Alaska in the first round. It would be a gritty and tough series, but I would feel pretty confident we could escape with 2 wins in 2 nights and move onto hosting the semifinals with relative ease.

Finishing 3 (or as low as 5, which is still possible) makes things significantly more difficult. In that scenario, our first round opponent would almost assuredly be either Northern Michigan, Bemidji State, or Michigan Tech. I would feel a little less confident there, and I would be pretty certain I would be spending my Sunday night at a win-or-go-home game in the first round, which is not something I want for this team.

2-seed likely path: vs. Alaska, vs. LSSU, @ Mankato
3-seed (or worse) likely path: vs. Bemidji/Tech/NMU, @ LSSU, @ Mankato

One of those clearly seems "easier" than the others...

[pdt1081]

End of 1, BG leads 1-0.

[pdt1081]

End of 2, BG leads 2-0.

Bemidji had 2 shots in the second. Both coming between 30 and 60 seconds left.

[pdt1081]

3-1 WIN

[BGhockeyfan94]

Escaped with a win there. Not sure how we play an amazing second period and play that bad of a third...

[Hockey John]

Escaped with a win there. Not sure how we play an amazing second period and play that bad of a third...

The game was important to Bemidji as well so you should expect a push back.
We need to come out again strong tomorrow and jump on them. We can't sit back like last Saturday night in the first period.

[mbenecke]

Happy to grab the win last night. Hoping for the same result tonight. A win and an LSSU-NMU tie tonight might be the best thing that can happen for our 2-seed chances.

First thing's first: get the sweep!

[AZIce]

BG played a perfect road game last night.
Get an early lead, don't try to do too much, play solid in your own end and get good goaltending......they did all of them.

Which gets them to tonight.

Tonight's game is the biggest must win of the season........so far.
They can possibly still finish 2nd in the league with a loss tonight and a sweep of UAH next week. Some split point games by NMU and LSSU would really be helpful, preferably tonight in Marquette would be nice, because if BG ends up tied at 56 points with either of them BG loses the tiebreaker as they would have 18 wins and BG 17.

Tonight game IS a must win for the NCAA at large bid chances. A loss tonight ends the realistic at large bid chances. The only games BG would have left would be against UAH and most likely Alaska, teams below 50 in the PWR. OSU's 3 game swoon has really hurt us as well, by my calculations we'd be 2-3 spots higher in the PWR if they were still #2 in it.......seems like something like that always works against us every year.

Wins against those teams would gain us nothing in the PWR, so odds of moving up from say number 17 or 16 would be small. We'd pretty much be forced to get to the WCHA Championship game to make up any PWR ground at all and if you get there, just win it and your in anyway.

So tonight is really big. Its Bemidji's last home game, they are fighting for home ice and it's their Senior night, so they are going to be jacked up. We are going to have to "weather the storm" for the first 10-15 minutes I'm sure. If BG can get out of the 1st period tonight with the game still close and in question, then I think we've got a good shot to pull off the sweep that we have got to have.

Wins by OSU, WMU, RMU and Mercyhurst would help too.......

[mbenecke]

Wins by OSU, WMU, RMU and Mercyhurst would help too.......

And Wisconsin, Minnesota, Yale, Qunnipiac, Merrimack, UMass, and New Hamshire. Lol