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MARQUETTE — The waiting is over for the Northern Michigan University hockey team as it finally knows where it’s heading in the first round of the WCHA playoffs.

After coming up short in trying to get home ice in the first round, the sixth-seeded Wildcats (8-15-1, 6-7-1 WCHA) head to No. 13 and third-seeded Bowling Green State (19-8-1, 8-5-1) this weekend. This will be the third time in the four years that Grant Potulny has coached NMU that it has faced the Falcons in the playoffs. Northern defeated BG in the semifinals in 2018 and lost in the semis in 2019.

Game times are 7:07 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and if necessary in this best-of-3 series, Sunday at 5:07 p.m.

Northern Michigan University's Vincent de Mey, left, brings the puck out of the Wildcats' zone as Michigan Tech's Brian Halonen gives chase during the second period on Feb. 27 at the Berry Events Center in Marquette. (Photo courtesy Shannon Stieg)

“So you start (last) week and you start doing work on Bowling Green first and then you go and do work on Lake (Superior) State because then you think that might be your opponent, and then it’s Bemidji (State),” Potulny said in a Monday Zoom interview about preparation he and his staff made before their opponent was actually known.

“And then really until Saturday afternoon, we didn’t know who we were going to play. Interesting it’s Bowling Green, I was just telling the other guys, it’s almost a rite of passage for Northern and BG to play each other in the playoffs.”

The Wildcats lost to the Falcons three times this year with a fourth game ending in a scoreless tie with NMU prevailing in the shootout. As BG has had the ‘Cats number, Northern’s first-round draw isn’t an easy one.

When asked if coaches ever hope they play certain teams in the playoffs, Potulny said that mindset can be a problem.

“That’s a dangerous game, starting to hope that you get people,” he said. “Everybody’s got their own challenges. Bowling Green, their (defensive) corps is very good. I think they have the highest scoring ‘D’ in the country. If not, they’re close. Their top line is very good, their goaltender is good.

“But the reality of it is there’s not much difference in teams (seeded) 2 through 6. I’ve kind of talked about that all year. It’s really who’s playing better. To advance, you’ve got to be playing great. So whether it’s up here or down there, Bowling Green or whoever, you have to play well.”

The good thing for NMU is that it played the Falcons just three weeks ago, so they are fresh in the Wildcats’ minds.

“We’ve actually kind of played the same teams lately, so you have a good barometer on how they’re playing and it’s a team we’ve played four times,” Potulny said. “So that’s another positive is that you have a pretty good feel for who you’re playing. But like I said, you can know exactly how you want to game plan for them, you just have to execute.”

Northern will be at a disadvantage in its defensive corps for Friday’s opener thanks to a season-ending injury to Tyrell Boucher and a one-game suspension to Hank Sorensen. The Wildcats don’t have much of a choice but to play with only five defensemen. That will put a lot of pressure on the Wildcats’ forwards to keep the puck at BG’s end of the rink.

“Last week was good,” Potulny said. “I had a good week of practice and you get nervous a little bit as a coach when you have all that practice time, it can get monotonous. I thought they had a good week of practice.

“Going into the game on Friday is going to be tough, it’s going to be on our forward group. We’re going to have to play in their end and you can’t hope, or expect, to have to defend in our end all night because not only is it going to be hard on Friday with five defensemen, going into Saturday or Sunday, you don’t want your guys to be completely worn down because they’re playing so many minutes. So forwards have got a big job.”

Last week, Potulny said he wanted to coach his players hard and that he said he was able to do so.

“I was, and actually to be honest, there was a couple days going into the practice, I had my mind set that if we weren’t practicing at the level that I thought that we needed to, I was going to jump them and I didn’t even have to,” he said. “So they responded well. Those are the best weeks when you don’t even have to coach them that hard because they’re practicing hard. That was a big positive for us, for sure.”

Overall, Potulny said the Wildcats are feeling confident and that they’re ready to start their postseason quest.

“The locker room’s good,” he said. “Guys are in good spirits. I think that the last weekend we played (Bowling Green) here was probably good for us to see where we stack up against them. Really for 3 1/2 periods, or excuse me, 5 1/2 periods, it was a pretty even-Steven game against them. And then we got in the penalty box in that third period and they changed the game that way. But I think the guys feel good about it. They should.”

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.