The 2025–26 Bowling Green Falcons men's ice hockey season was the 57th season of play for the program and the 47th in the CCHA. The Falcons represented Bowling Green State University in the 2025–26 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey season, played their home games at the Slater Family Ice Arena and were coached by Dennis Williams in his 3rd season.
Season While Bowling Green had a sizable amount of roster turnover from last season, that had become a feature for most teams in the transfer portal era. However, this year the Falcons took advantage of a new NCAA policy, the newfound eligibility of Canadian Hockey League players, to fill out its lineup. Ten of eleven incoming freshmen arrived from major junior hockey while another (transfer Tyler Palmer) had previously played in the WHL. The heavy reliance on Canadian players did not look like it would pay off early when the Falcons were swept by Niagara to open the campaign. The first month of the season did not produce many positives for the Falcons as the team was unable to find any consistency. Bowling Green had three separate starters in the first four weeks but it was the hot-and-cold scoring that was their biggest problem.
By mid-November, the Falcons seemed to find their stride and the team managed to put together a good stretch of games. The team had a rather odd goaltending situation as three separate netminders (Palmer, Cole Moore and Jacob Steinman) all proved to be capable in goal. However, because only one goaltender can be on the ice at a time, the team had some difficulty in getting game time to all three. That strange situation was unfortunately resolved when Steinman was felled by a season-ending injury on February 14. On the offensive side of the puck, while the team was rife with new players, the scoring was led by two old hands in Quinn Emerson and Ben Doran. Though there wasn't a frontrunner in terms of goals, the Falcons received contributions from up and down the lineup, averaging just shy of 3 goals per game.
The second half of the season was roughly equal to the first with Bowling Green winning a majority of its games and only once losing consecutive matches. The Falcons ended the regular season running through a gauntlet of ranked opponents and came out with a slightly above-average mark; however, a failure to win several games against inferior opponents held the Falcons' national ranking down. By the end of the regular season, even though the team was 9 games above .500, Bowling Green sat below the cut line for the postseason. Additionally, because their final game had been won in overtime, they finished just behind Michigan Tech in the standings and would be forced to hit the road for the conference quarterfinals.
With their season hanging in the balance, Bowling Green dominated the shot total in the first game against the Huskies but were let down by their goaltending. Palmer allowed 4 goals on just 17 shots and was replaced by Moore for the rematch. Once again, the Falcons ran up a large shot advantage but this time it was the offense that left them down. Bowling Green scored just 2 goals on 42 shots, the final coming after Tech had scored into an empty net that proved to be the game-winner.
This season saw the program record its 1,000th win in the regular season.
Departures Michael Bevilacqua Defenseman Transferred to Lindenwood Pete Eigner Goaltender Graduation (retired) Salvatore Evola Goaltender Transferred to Mercyhurst Seth Fyten Forward Graduation (signed with Savannah Ghost Pirates) Ville Immonen Forward Graduation (signed with Vaasan Sport) Matvei Kabanov Forward Signed professional contract (HC Lada Togliatti) Brayden Krieger Forward Graduation (retired) Johannes Løkkeberg Forward Signed professional contract (Stavanger Oilers) Nicholas O'Hanisain Defenseman Left program (retired) Ryan O'Hara Forward Graduation (signed with Greenville Swamp Rabbits) Owen Ozar Forward Graduation (retired) Eric Parker Defenseman Graduation (signed with Norfolk Admirals) Tommy Pasanen Defenseman Graduation (signed with Löwen Frankfurt) Brandon Santa Juana Forward Transferred to Toronto Ethan Scardina Forward Graduation (signed with Atlanta Gladiators) Adam Schankula Forward Transferred to Adrian Christian Stoever Goaltender Graduation (signed with Cardiff Devils) Ben Wozney Defenseman Graduation (signed with Corsaires de Nantes)
Recruiting Brayden Crampton Defenseman 21 Chilliwack, BC Ty Higgins Defenseman 21 Stratford, ON Tyler Hotson Defenseman 22 Stratford, ON; transfer from Rensselaer Connor Levis Forward 20 Vancouver, BC; selected 210th overall in 2023 Brian Lonergan Defenseman 19 Montvale, NJ Jérémie Minville Forward 21 Drummondville, QC Noah Morneau Forward 21 Riverside, ON Tyler Palmer Goaltender 22 Fernie, BC; transfer from Alberta Dominik Rymon Forward 21 Karlovy Vary, CZE Tanner Scott Forward 21 Sherwood Park, AB Rihards Simanovičs Defenseman 21 Riga, LAT; transfer from Miami Jake Sloan Forward 21 Leduc County, AB Jacob Steinman Goaltender 21 Cambridge, ON Brandon Whynott Forward 21 Langley, BC
Roster As of February 28, 2026.
Standings
Schedule and results
!colspan=12 style=";" | Exhibition
!colspan=12 style=";" | Regular Season
!colspan=12 style=";" |
Scoring statistics C/RW 36 10 23 33 28 F 36 7 24 31 40 F 36 12 16 28 39 D 36 2 24 26 16 C/LW 36 11 11 22 14 D 35 3 15 18 29 D 32 5 12 17 14 LW 30 9 6 15 14 LW 36 7 8 15 10 D 27 1 12 13 16 F 35 8 4 12 34 F 24 6 5 11 12 D 21 1 10 11 22 D 25 6 4 10 98 C 33 5 5 10 23 F 26 3 6 9 12 C/RW 32 2 5 7 10 C 31 4 1 5 6 F 28 2 2 4 4 D 30 1 3 4 25 C/W 14 1 1 2 2 D 16 0 2 2 4 D 24 1 0 1 0 F 4 0 0 0 0 D 4 0 0 0 2 G 11 0 0 0 0 G 14 0 0 0 0 G 15 0 0 0 0 Total 107 199 306 480
Goaltending statistics 16 843:03 8 3 3 30 352 0 .921 2.14 11 560:40 5 3 1 22 195 1 .899 2.35 14 784:09 5 5 3 31 324 1 .913 2.37 Empty Net - 18:44 - - - 5 - - - - Total 36 2206:08 18 11 7 88 871 2 .904 2.39
Rankings
PollWeekPre 1 23456789101112131415161718192021222324252627 (Final) USCHO.comRVNRNRNRNRNRNRNRNRRVNRNR–NRRVRVNRRVRVRVRVRVRVNRRV USA HockeyRVNRNRNR NR NR NR NR NR RVNRNR–NRNRRVNRRVRVRV20RVRVRVNR Note: USCHO did not release a poll in week 12.Note: USA Hockey did not release a poll in week 12.
References