Call it a roller coaster season. Call it a year of hills and valleys. Call it what you will, but after 18 Division II ice hockey games, Bow finds itself exactly where it is every March … in the playoffs.

Though the Falcons slipped in their regular-season finale at home, 4-2, to three-win Winnacunnet, head coach Tim Walsh quickly noted the setback was no more an indicator of the team’s postseason chances than a 2-1 victory on Jan. 24 against top-seeded Timberlane, the Owls’ lone loss.

“We’ve kind of played to the level of our competition, whether they’re good or they’re not very good, and maybe that’s a good thing for us heading into the playoffs,” said Walsh. “All eight teams can beat all eight teams. It’s crazy this year. It’s wide open.”

After a 4-3-0 start to the season, Bow dropped five consecutive contests and was in danger of missing the playoffs.

But the Falcons proved resilient, putting together a 4-0-1 run to lock up a tournament spot before dropping their final contest by allowing three power-play goals and a late-game empty-netter.

“Right there, today’s game was a microcosm of our whole season. It’s no sense of urgency, it’s not catching passes, it’s not finishing around the net, it’s not picking guys up in the (defensive) zone. That’s why we’re 8-9-1,” said Walsh. “You’d like to think this kind of game would serve as motivation. And I hope it does, but I never like to go into the playoffs not playing our best hockey, and I really don’t think we’ve played our best hockey this year.”

Bow players and coaches know all to well the postseason disappointments of the last five years, which have ended in the D-II semifinals.

Last year’s heartbreak came when the fifth-seeded locals led top-ranked Spaulding by two goals with five minutes remaining in their semifinal matchup.

Two power-play goals and an overtime 2-on-1 breakaway later, the Falcons were sent home, in Walsh’s mind, prematurely.

This year, Bow enters the tournament as the No. 7 seed.

“It’s a different situation for us this year,” said Walsh. “But we’re in, and who knows, maybe we’re going to take a different route this year and it’s going to get us to where we really want to be in the end.”

The Falcons open the playoffs on Saturday, March 7, at Lebanon, a team they lost to, 4-3, on Feb. 4. The puck drops at 4 p.m.

Game notes
Backup netminder Chad Wilkinson stopped 21 shots in the losing effort to Winnacunnet, but he and the Bow defense allowed several second- and third-chance opportunities.

Junior Greg Bueddeman scored both Bow goals. Senior captain Matt Champagne and sophomore John Fanaras assisted on the first with 7:47 remaining in the first period. The second came unassisted, 1:25 into the second period.