After losing seven of their last eight games, the Bowling Green State University hockey team finished the regular season as the sixth seed in the CCHA playoffs.

The Falcons will travel to Bemidji, Minnesota, to take on Bemidji State in a best of three series.

Head coach Ty Eigner said the familiarity with BSU should help the Falcons in this series.

“It’s an opponent we’re familiar with. We’ve had some good games against them this year. There won’t be any secrets, you’re going to have to execute,” Eigner said.

In the last eight games for the Falcons, they averaged 1.5 goals per game. On the season, they average 2.62 goals per game.

The BGSU offense has not been able to click in the second half of the season. They average about 29 shots on goal per game, but haven’t been able to convert any of them into goals.

Eigner said it’s been a combination of things that has stalled the offense.

“It’s been a little bit of what we’ve been going through the last month. It’s a penalty here, a missed opportunity here and a turnover there,” Eigner said. “It’s the little things that add up to a big thing.”

Last weekend against Lake Superior State, BGSU was the least penalized team on the ice. They had eight penalties in the whole series; LSS had 13.

The Falcons converted on two power plays the whole weekend. They went 2 for 10 in power plays in both games.

BGSU only scored two goals in the series.

It will be a matchup of freshman goaltenders this weekend. Both of them also have similar stats.

BGSU Christian Stoever and BSU Mattias Sholl average about three goals per game. They also have a save percentage of about 0.895.

Stoever has played three more games than Sholl. Stoever has allowed 10 more total goals than Sholl, but also has 80 more total saves than Sholl.

The last time these two teams played each other was on Jan. 14-15 at Slater Family Ice Arena.

Stoever gave up three goals in the first period of game one and was pulled. He bounced back in the second game and only allowed two goals.

Sholl was more consistent and allowed three goals in each game. He had 50 saves in the series.

The Falcons went 2-2 against the Beavers this season. BGSU will need to play like they did earlier in the season to pull off the first round upset.

“At the end of the day, what we want to accomplish and how we want to play has not changed. We need to do a better job of playing the way we are built, playing the way we need to play and valuing the things we need to value,” Eigner said.