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Bowling Green has been short on defensemen this season since freshman Matthew Ferrari left the Falcons shortly before the season.
That left the Falcons scrambling for different options on the their blue line. Club hockey player Andrew Savage was added to the roster, but with no NCAA eligibility remaining, Savage was only available to help fill out numbers for practices. The solution came today when defenseman Jordan Ernst announced that he would be joining the Falcons for the second half of the season:
Excited to be joining @BGSU_Hockey for the second half of the season!
— Jordan Ernst (@J_Ernst58) November 30, 2015
Ernst is a '97-born defenseman from the Chicago area that is playing his first year in the USHL with the Madison Capitols. Ernst had previously been committed to Bowling Green for the 2016-2017 season, but desperate times called for him to start his college career half a season early.
Bowling Green's last day of classes for the fall semester is December 11th, which means Ernst wouldn't be available for next weekend's important home series against WCHA leaders Minnesota State, but could presumably be in the line-up for the following weekend's series against at Bemidji State if he was able to get the proper academic clearances.
The Falcons are currently second in the WCHA in winning percentage and sit at 21st in the Pairwise Rankings, so they will have a lot to play for in the second half of the season, and adding a strong skating puck-mover like Ernst makes their blue line better and deeper.