Previewing the Bowling Green Falcons

Bemidji State is set to face the Bowling Green State University Falcons at home in a rare Thursday/Friday series. Plagued early in the season by off the ice turmoil, the Falcons have rebounded nicely from a poor start to their season and sit tied for 5th place in the CCHA at 15 points, just 1 point behind 4th place Bemidji State, making this a crucial series for both teams to end the first half of the season’s conference slate.

Before the season even began for the Falcons, they were placed behind the eight-ball as head coach Ty Eigner and 3 players were suspended after allegations of hazing surfaced (now known as coming from disgruntled former player Austen Swankler, who has since transferred to Michigan Tech and will be making his season debut within the next month). Since then, both a university and police investigation concluded that there was no substance to those allegations, but the university did find code of conduct violations resulting in additional suspensions to team members.

With everything going on behind the scenes, it’s no surprise to see the Falcons struggle early. BGSU would start the season with just 2 wins in their first 10 games, with the two wins coming against Mercyhurst and Robert Morris. Since then however, the Falcons have gone 5-3-0 over their last 8 including splits against LSSU, Northern Michigan, and Michigan Tech and sweeping current CCHA bottom feeder Ferris State last weekend at home.

Sweeps have been rare in the CCHA so far this season, so it was impressive to see the Falcons get a full 6 points at home against the Bulldogs. Both games were tightly contested 1 goal games and freshman goaltender Cole Moore was named CCHA Goaltender of the Week for his performances. Pitching a 39 save shutout on Friday to preserve a 1-0 win for Bowling Green, the 6’6” Moore would stop 34 of 37 shots on Saturday as the Falcons won 4-3.

Moore has filled in quite well for the presumed starter Christian Stoever who went down with an injury in the middle of November. Moore is 6-6-0 on the season after losing his first 3 starts of the year. His .917 save percentage is 3rd best in the CCHA while his 2.68 goals allowed per game is 4th. Behind Moore, there isn’t a lot of experience. If needed, I would expect the Falcons to turn to junior Salvatore Evola, who has appeared in 3 games in his career although none of this season.

The loss of Austen Swankler, who led the Falcons in points last season with 44 as a sophomore, certainly diminishes what has been a potent attack for Bowling Green the last few seasons. Averaging just 2.4 goals per game, the Falcons rank 51st nationally albeit with an uptick over the last 8 games in which they have averaged over 3 goals per game.

Junior forward Ryan O’Hara currently leads the team in scoring with 16 points off 9 goals and 7 assists through 18 games. Freshman Brody Waters is quietly putting up potentially CCHA Rookie of the Year numbers with 6 goals and 6 assists so far this season. 5th year player, and transfer from UMass, Josh Nodler is setting up for a career year with 11 points so far off 4 goals and 7 assists.

After that top line however, the scoring does dry up a bit. Freshman defenseman Gustav Stjernberg has 4 goals and 6 assists through his first 15 career games. 5th year forward Spencer Kersten and junior defenseman Ben Wozney both have 7. Senior forward Ethan Scardina has recorded just 3 points in 8 games so far this season since his suspension was lifted.

It’s been an impressive freshman class for the Falcons so far. Outside of just Stjernberg, Waters, and Moore, BGSU have gotten significant contributions from defensemen Brandon Santa Juana (1 goal 3 assists),Breck McKinley (3 assists) and Nick O’Hanisain. A young team, the Falcons will surely continue to grow throughout the season and could cause real problems for any team in this league come playoffs.

For the Beavers, you could really sense the frustration from the coaching staff and players as the weekend came to a close against Lake Superior State. After a dominating 7-1 victory on Friday, in which Bemidji State allowed just 13 shots on goal, the wheels fell off on Saturday as LSSU would dominate from start to finish winning 6-1.

Saturday night was really disappointing to see as the Beavers could just not match the intensity brought to the rink from a desperate Lake Superior State team. Bemidji State had a real opportunity to separate themselves from the bottom half of the CCHA and instead now sit in 4th place with just a 1-point lead over LSSU, Northern Michigan, and this week’s opponent Bowling Green. Only 6 points separate 1st from 7th in the conference.

The inconsistency of this team is baffling to me. The 3.8 goals allowed per game is 58th worse in the nation and essentially unheard of for a Tom Serratore lead Bemidji State team. More concerning is that this is coming on an average of under 28 shots per game, which is near the top of the for fewest shots allowed per game. The team’s save percentage is the worst in the nation at just .863% and even worse in conference play at .838%

All of the blame cannot be placed on goaltending, although the team has certainly struggled in that regard this season. The defensemen and forwards in front of Gavin Enright have not been good enough in preventing high danger chances for opponent teams. Too many times on Saturday night did you notice players stopped and puck watching as the Lakers were able to control the offensive zone. I also think that the opposition has seen some tendencies in Enright and have figured out his weak points (i.e. high glove side) and have done a good job targeting those areas when given time and space to do so.

It was really nice to see Carter Jones, Austin Jouppi, and Eric Martin establish themselves offensively this last weekend. Carter Jones would end up being named CCHA Forward of the Week for the first time in his career as he recorded 3 goals and an assist on the weekend. Austin Jouppi had 4 assists while Martin recorded his first goal of the season and had a couple of helpers as well.

This week will be a tough challenge for the Beavers as they will again be shorthanded against an opponent rising up in the standings. Mattias Sholl is now not expected back until the New Years weekend series against St Cloud. Jackson Jutting will be out for “at least a month”. The Beavers will also be losing top line winger Kasper Magnussen and top 4 defenseman Eric Pohlkamp this weekend as they participate in their respective nations World Junior Championship pretournament camps. The expecation is that both will make the roster for their respective U20 teams and will head to Sweden for that tournament, not returning until the middle of January.

Because of this, I expect to see freshmen Noah Quinn and Rhys Chiddenton get an opportunity for more playing time. I thought Quinn’s game on Friday was the best of his short career so far and he was rewarded with his first career goal. Chiddenton was given that spot on the 4th line on Saturday and didn’t do much with it in a lopsided game, but has shown exceptional skating ability in his time with the team this season. As he continues to adapt to the speed of college hockey, I expect that he will develop into a much bigger scoring threat.

The Beavers absolutely need to pick up the majority of points this weekend if they want to keep pace in the MacNaughton Cup race. A split or worse will see the Beavers continue to hover around the middle of the pack while other teams are given the chance to pull away. For a team as wildly inconsistent as Bemidji State, a sweep this weekend would be a huge statement to the rest of the league and give the Beavers momentum going into the holiday break.