ROUND 1: vs. Northern Michigan (3/12-3/14)

[mbenecke]

To open the postseason, our Falcons (19-8-1) will host the Northern Michigan Wildcats (8-15-1) in the first round of the WCHA playoffs. This is a best-of-three series this weekend, with Friday and Saturday games at 7:07pm, and a Sunday contest (if necessary) at 5:07pm. The series winner will advance to the WCHA semifinal round, which will be played on Friday, March 19 before the championship game the next night. Barring a huge upset, those games will be played in Mankato, MN - a place with a lot of recent history for our guys - so it’s important for us to keep our win streak rolling through the first round and put ourselves in position to win a conference championship and clinch an NCAA tournament bid.

We’ve played Northern Michigan 4 times this season, winning 6-2 and 5-1 in BG back in January, and tying 0-0 before winning 6-2 at their place a few weeks ago. This NMU team’s record is fairly mediocre, but they’ve gotten better recently - though they enter riding a 3-game losing streak, they are 6-3-1 in their last 10, so it’s a worthy first round opponent. Their goalie as of late, Rico DiMatteo, has shown that he can stand on his head to win his team a game, so we need to be locked in offensively in order to win these games.

WCHA Quarterfinals:
#8 Ferris State @ #1 Minnesota State
#7 UAH @ #2 Lake Superior State
#6 Northern Michigan @ #3 Bowling Green
#5 Michigan Tech @ #4 Bemidji State

Goaltender Stats:

BGSU
Sr. Eric Dop... GAA - 2.07, SV% - .927, 12-6-1
So. Zack Rose... GAA - 1.98, SV% - .908, 7-2-0

NMU
Jr. Nolan Kent... GAA - 3.26, SV% - .886, 2-7-0
Jr. Connor Ryckman... GAA - 5.21, SV% - .846, 2-3-0
Fr. Rico DiMatteo... GAA - 2.78, SV% - .903, 4-4-1
So. John Hawthorne… GAA - 4.68, SV% - .871, 0-1-0

Go Falcons!

[jpfalcon09]

Friday game is very important. BG needs to jump on NMU early and not give them a sniff.

[BillyLP]

Did NMU have injury issues in goalie this year? I don't think I've ever seen a pretty even three-way split with goalie starts.

[AZIce]

Did NMU have injury issues in goalie this year? I don't think I've ever seen a pretty even three-way split with goalie starts.

No their goaltending was just BAD.

The 3 guys they had all stunk it up, so they brought in Rico DiMatteo from Jr A Tier 2 after the 1st of the year.
He started out hot, but has cooled off lately as teams have been able to scout him now.

I'm sure it is him that BG will see this weekend, at least on Friday for sure.

[mbenecke]

Connor Ford, Brandon Kruse, and Will Cullen named First Team All-WCHA.

Nobody else made a list. I'm a little surprised that Cameron Wright didn't even get a third team nod, as he's 4th in the league in scoring and tied for 3rd in goals, but I get it. Tremendous accomplishment to get 3/6 first-team honors.

[Bgsu2016]

Man I’d love another NCAA tourney birth. LFG boys

[Freddie]

Man I’d love another NCAA tourney birth. LFG boys

I believe the word is berth.

Homophones rule!

[pdt1081]

Gavin Gould is still out tonight. Hopefully, the CCHA will apply the supplemental disciplinary a little more evenly across the board.

[mbenecke]

GOAL! Taylor Schneider adds a goal with about 6:30 to play in the first period to put our Falcons up 1-0.

[mbenecke]

END OF ONE: BG leads, 1-0.

Shots on goal are 11-4 in favor of BG.

Solid start.

[mbenecke]

Northern evens the game at 1 with a goal on a 4x3 PP with 10:13 to play in the middle frame.

[mbenecke]

And Northern adds another 45 seconds later to go ahead 2-1. Not a great minute of action from the boys in white.

[mbenecke]

And 3 minutes later, NMU gets another PP goal.

They lead 3-1 with 6:34 to go in the 2nd period.

I think our special teams under Ty Eigner have been a bust. We need to fix that, badly.

[jpfalcon09]

Seen this story before.

[mbenecke]

NMU adds their 4th goal of the period with 2:55 to play.