Photo by J.D. Pooley/Sentinel-Tribune
New faces making huge impact for BGSU hockey
Drew Terhall
Dec 3, 2021
Going into the off season, Bowling Green State University hockey had a decimated roster.
After last season ended, the Falcons had 11 players leave the program to use their extra year due to the coronavirus pandemic somewhere else.
Head coach Ty Eigner and his staff had to find some way to make up for the lost production.
“As soon as our season was over, we started to look real closely at the transfer portal,” Eigner said.
For senior Gabriel Chicoine, the transfer portal was a chance to show off his skills at the Division I level.
After spending three seasons at Division III Norwich, Chicoine talked with his coach and decided to pursue playing at a higher level.
“I love Norwich, it was amazing and everything was good. But for my hockey career, the best thing to do was play D1 and have more people seeing me,” Chicoine said.
Senior Nathan Burke was in a similar situation. Burke didn’t receive a lot of playing time while at the University of Minnesota.
Eigner said he received calls from both of their coaches about them. Then he asked around about both players through Zoom or on the phone. In-person visits weren’t allowed due to COVID.
BGSU and the players had to rely on talking to other people and talking to the players through Zoom or on the phone. In-person visits weren’t allowed due to COVID.
“I was on calls with Curtis Carr, the defenseman coach. I went on a Zoom call with some of the players so I could ask them questions. I also talked with CC (Chrystopher Collin), he’s also French Canadian. It was easier to get the feeling of the program,” Chicoine said.
Eigner said he asked junior Adam Pitters about Burke. Pitters and Burke played on the same junior league team, the Aberdeen Wings.
While Chicoine and Burke came recommended, Eigner said he sought out the third transfer, senior Coale Norris.
Norris was the only player Eigner saw in person as he had played for conference rival Ferris State for four years. There was more familiarity with Norris after his younger brother, Dalton, committed to BGSU hockey.
Eigner said once he saw Norris in the transfer portal, he called head coach Bob Daniels to tell him BGSU would pursue him.
All three checked the boxes for BGSU, Eigner said. They were great hockey players, and all three were even better people., he said.
For the players, the one-year MBA program at BGSU was very attractive. Eigner said all the transfers are in the MBA program.
Chicoine said all the transfers and senior Sam Craggs are in the same classes together.
Chicoine said he loves the team chemistry and everyone fits in. The chemistry continued to build during the first few practices with the new roster.
“I wasn’t used to starting once school started. The pace was good and the guys were good. Everyone was excited, it was a fun time,” Chicoine said.
The transfers are upperclassmen and have taken on some sort of a leadership role.
“We were real intentional with, this is the 2021-22 team and we’re going to need everybody. The sooner we can come together as a team, the better we’re going to be. They fit in really, really well,” Eigner said.
Through 14 games, the transfers have shined on the ice.
Burke leads the team with eight goals and has 12 points. Chicoine leads the team with 12 assists and has been a force on defense. Norris has chipped in five goals and five assists, bringing his point total to 10.
The trio has accounted for 34 of the team’s 126 total points. That’s about 27% of the team’s total points.
“We’re proud of the fact that what we’ve said we were going to do, we’ve done. And what we believed they were going to do, they’ve done. It’s been a really good relationship and that speaks to what we’ve got going on around here,” Eigner said.
This experience will change the way BGSU operates their recruiting in the future, Eigner said. With the COVID year hanging around for the years to come, understanding the portal will become more important to the program.
“We can complain about it, we can say it shouldn’t be this way — or we can try and figure out how the transfer portal works for Bowling Green. That’s been our approach,” Eigner said.