The Bowling Green hockey team has won a playoff series in seven consecutive seasons.
However, only once in the previous six seasons have the Falcons won more than two postseason games. To
reach that mark for a second time in head coach Chris Bergeron’s tenure, Bowling Green will need to
break through against the stingiest defenses in the nation.
The second-round series begins tonight at 8:07 p.m. in Bemidji, Minnesota.
Top-seeded Bemidji State enters the Western Collegiate Hockey Association semifinals with a national-best
1.87 goals against per game. Junior goaltender Michael Bitzer leads the nation with a 1.65 goals-against
average and six shutouts, while his .933 save percent ranks fourth.
“He’s an aggressive goalie, and it’s deserved that he’s as confident as any player out there,” Bergeron
said of Bitzer. “We know Michael Bitzer, and we’ve had some success against him, not necessarily this
year but in the past, and we’re going to have to lean on those situations to learn from, and make it
difficult on him. It can’t just be words, it has to be actions.”
In 11 career starts against the Falcons, Bitzer has a 5-6-1 record with a 2.19 goals-against average and
a .907 save percent. This year, he has a 3-1-0 record against the Falcons, and has given up six goals in
four games.
Much like most of the top teams in the WCHA, Bemidji does a great job of suffocating its opposition in
the defensive zone, keeping play to the outside and limiting high-quality scoring chances. When chances
do come, more often than not Bitzer has been there to make a save.
The Falcons have experienced that first-hand this year. They scored only one time in each of their first
three games against the Beavers this season, before finally breaking through for a 4-2 win in the two
teams’ most recent meeting Jan. 6. The best way to crack that stingy defense, Bergeron said, is to stick
to the game plan, regardless of how difficult Bemidji is making it.
“The thing we can’t do is we can’t get frustrated to where guys go and do their own thing and try to beat
guys one-on-one, because that’s what Bemidji wants you to do,” Bergeron said. “They’re so good
defensively that they frustrate you. It’s a long series, so we can’t allow that frustration to evolve
into guys going on their own page and doing their own thing. We’ve got a game plan, we want our guys to
stick to that game plan and know that you’re going to have to be patient with that game plan.”
The best way for the Falcons to attack Bemidji’s defense is to get bodies to the net, a strategy that
worked well against Ferris State.
Bowling Green scored 11 times in its two-game sweep of the Bulldogs, often by crashing the net and
capitalizing on second and third chance opportunities.
“I thought for the most part we earn our goals,” Bergeron said. “We earned them first with people (going
to the net) first, and secondly pucks, and that chaos, I thought we were good with second and third
efforts in front of their net.
“Guys have to commit to it. It starts with effort.”
