1. Falcons on top
It took two extremely hard-fought games against defending league champs Bemidji State, but Bowling Green is on top of the standings after a win and a tie against the Beavers. BGSU won 3-1 on Friday thanks to a goal with just more than two minutes left by Niko Coffman (they added an empty netter soon after). On Saturday, Lucas Craggs tied it up with 53 seconds to go to force the game into overtime. The Beavers won the shootuout and the extra point, but it was a net positive for the Falcons: Their four points on the weekend leapfrogged them past idle Minnesota State for first place. They now have 24 points — three points ahead of the second-place Mavs.
2. Beavers near the bottom
On the other side, BSU is winless in its last four conference games and are currently in ninth place in the league standings — just one-point ahead of currently last-place Alaska Anchorage. Although that’s not an enviable position for the Beavers, they’ve played just eight league games. Most everyone else in the conference has 10, 12, or even 14 games played. So The Beavers will have plenty of chances to climb the ladder down the stretch. They play two WCHA series before the holiday break — both at home — against Northern Michigan and UAA.
3. Splitting up
While Ferris State was able to gain some ground — but not much — this weekend with a sweep of Alaska Anchorage, the other four WCHA teams in action ended up splitting their series. Alabama Huntsville, Northern Michigan, Alaska AND Lake Superior State all earned three points. That didn’t do much to put some distance in the standings — teams 4-10 in the conference are separated by just 9 points.
