Bowling Green State University’s hockey team opens Central Collegiate Hockey Association play this weekend with a two-game series at Lake Superior State, the university announced Tuesday, with puck drops set for 7:07 p.m. Friday and Saturday inside Taffy Abel Arena in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.
The series carries a milestone: Friday’s game will be the 199th meeting between the Falcons and Lakers, and Saturday’s will be the 200th. Bowling Green leads the all-time series 103-82-13, according to BGSU athletics.
The matchup brings together much of the CCHA’s early scoring leaderboard. Bowling Green and Lake Superior State combine to roster six of the top seven players in the conference in points so far this season, with BGSU’s Noah Morneau and Connor Levis tied for second at seven points and Tyler Hotson tied for fifth at six.
The two teams also combine for all four of the CCHA’s top players in assists. Levis and Lake Superior State’s Charles Savoie are tied for the lead with six, while Morneau and the Lakers’ Cooper Foster are tied for second with five, along with Michigan Tech’s Tom Leppa.
Bowling Green will try to win its conference opener for a third straight year under head coach Dennis Williams. The Falcons beat Ferris State 2-0 in their 2024-25 opener and Lake Superior State 4-1 in last year’s opener, BGSU noted.
Only one Bowling Green coach has won his first three conference openers, Ty Eigner from 2019 to 2021, a mark Williams can match with a win Friday night.
Both games stream on Midco Sports Plus. After the trip north, the Falcons continue CCHA play as the conference schedule settles in for the winter.
Conference openers carry weight in the CCHA because the league’s compact standings punish slow starts. Points taken on the road in October can be the difference between home ice and a road trip when the playoffs arrive in March, which is why Bowling Green is treating a long trip to the Upper Peninsula as more than a routine first series.
The historical depth of the series adds context as well. Two hundred meetings place Bowling Green and Lake Superior State among the most familiar pairings in college hockey, and this weekend’s milestone games come with both programs fielding some of the league’s most productive early-season forwards.