WCHA Super Clash: No. 18 Falcons Host No. 17 Michigan Tech Friday And Saturday

#18 Bowling Green Falcons (15-7-5, 11-3-4 WCHA)
vs.
#17 Michigan Tech Huskies (13-7-4, 10-6-2 WCHA)

PREGAME CHALK TALK (CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS)
GAME INFORMATION	Friday, Jan. 29 / 7:07 pm ET
LOCATION	Bowling Green, Ohio (BGSU Ice Arena)
TELEVISION	None
RADIO	WBGU 88.1 FM (Evan Pivnick/Adam Ramos)
LIVE STATS	BGSUFalcons.com
WATCH ONLINE	WCHA.tv
LISTEN ONLINE	BGSUFalcons.com
GAME NOTES	BGSU \| Michigan Tech \| WCHA

#18 Bowling Green Falcons (15-7-5, 11-3-4 WCHA)
vs.
#17 Michigan Tech Huskies (13-7-4, 10-6-2 WCHA)

GAME INFORMATION	Saturday, Jan. 30 / 7:07 pm ET
LOCATION	Bowling Green, Ohio (BGSU Ice Arena)
TELEVISION	BCSN (Greg Franke)
RADIO	WBGU 88.1 FM (Evan Pivnick/Adam Ramos)
LIVE STATS	BGSUFalcons.com
WATCH ONLINE	WCHA.tv
LISTEN ONLINE	BGSUFalcons.com
GAME NOTES	BGSU \| Michigan Tech \| WCHA

>>THE WEEK AHEAD

The No. 18 Bowling Green Falcons secured their third home WCHA sweep of the season last week with a pair of 6-2 wins over Alaska Anchorage. The Falcons' 12 goals were their most in back-to-back games in nearly three years, but now they turn their attention to a key series with Michigan Tech. The Huskies are tied for third in the WCHA and are just four points behind BGSU. The games will be held Friday and Saturday at the BGSU Ice Arena. The puck will drop on both nights at 7:07pm.

>>ABOUT MICHIGAN TECH
* 13-7-4 overall record
* Tied for third in WCHA (10-6-2, 22 points)
* Since last series vs BGSU: 7-3-4 (4-2-2 WCHA)
* 6-2-1 in WCHA road games with 28-18 goal differential
* Seventh nationally, combined special teams (.543)
* Leads WCHA with 2.92 goals per game
* 2-for-6 on power play in previous series vs BGSU
* Junior forward Alex Petan is first in WCHA with 13 goals and 22 points
* Junior forward Malcolm Gould leads team with +14 on-ice rating and has 18 points

>>WHAT ARE THEY SAYING?
"(Michigan Tech) is good at every position and they are deep at every position. And they are confident. Confidence is a difficult thing to teach; you have to earn that. And they've earned it. To make the step from contender to champion, we have to win. I hope guys are coming to Bowling Green to play in games like this and to be in races like this." BGSU Head Coach Chris Bergeron

>>THE MADHOUSE ON MERCER
Bowling Green has earned a 6-0-4 record through ten conference home games this season. It is the best conference record at home in 33 years, since the 1982-83 team went 15-0-1 at home in the CCHA. The Falcons are on pace for their best home slate of conference games since the 1994-95 team went 11-1-1. In the 20 seasons since, the Falcons' best conference records at the BGSU Ice Arena were 9-4-1 in both 2004-05 and 2014-15.

>>HAWK=FALCON
Sophomore forward Brandon Hawkins lit up Alaska Anchorage for three goals and five points last week and earned his first career WCHA Offensive Player of the Week honor. He was the only Falcon with multiple goals and led the team in points during their back-to-back 6-2 wins. The three goals were the most in a regular season series since Tyler Spezia did it to Minnesota State on Oct. 30 and Nov. 1, 2014, while no Falcon had scored five points in a series since Dan DeSalvo at Alabama-Huntsville on Jan. 3-4, 2014. Hawkins now has five goals and nine points in his last seven games and has moved to second on the team in both categories after leading both last season.

>>MORE SOPHOMORE FIREPOWER
Bowling Green sophomore Tyler Spezia is another Falcon to catch fire on offense during the new year. After securing just four goals and two assists in BGSU's first 20 games, he has nearly matched those totals with three goals and two assists in the last seven. He has a point in five of those seven games, including assists in both wins over Alaska Anchorage last week.

>>HELP IS HERE
BGSU Hockey added two defensemen, both of whom are eligible to play for the Falcons in the second half of the season. Freshmen Jordan Ernst and Adam Smith have both joined the team to battle for playing time in the back end, and the pair have played in all eight games since joining the team. Ernst most recently played for the Madison Capitols of the USHL and Smith was a member of the Newmarket Hurricanes of the OJHL. Smith scored three points in the series against Alaska Anchorage, including his first collegiate goal on Friday, Jan. 22. Ernst assisted on a goal for his first career point in a win on Friday, Jan. 8 at Lake Superior State.

>>CENTURY MEN
Bowling Green now has six players with over 100 career games. The group is led by seniors Mark Cooper (143 games) and Ben Murphy (140), while juniors Matt Pohlkamp (105), Sean Walker (104) and Pierre-Luc Mercier (102) joined the club earlier this month. Senior Brent Tate (102) added his name to the list on Jan. 16 against Miami, and junior Kevin Dufour will reach 100 in his next game. These players have combined for 36 goals and 88 points this season.

>>FANTASTIC FRESHMEN
The Falcons have eight freshmen, and all of them have notched their first career points. Against Alaska-Anchorage last week, Adam Smith and Joe McKeown earned their first points while Smith, McKeown and Connor McDonald lit the lamp for the first time. Bowling Green freshmen poured in four goals and 12 points during the series, and they have combined for nine goals and 40 points overall. BGSU has two of the WCHA's top ten rookie scorers in John Schilling (ten points) and Connor McDonald (nine points).

>>PASSING A HALL OF FAMER
Head coach Chris Bergeron owns 95 wins in his six-year career at Bowling Green. With BGSU's 3-2 win on Nov. 14, Bergeron moved past BGSU Athletics Hall of Famer Scott Paluch into fourth place on the all-time coaching wins list as a Falcon. He now trails only Buddy Powers (135 wins), Ron Mason (160) and Jerry York (342). Bergeron is 56-33-16 since the start of the 2013-14 season.

>>NELL AND VOID
Sophomore goalie Chris Nell has given up just 31 goals in 20 starts (11-4-5) this season. He's allowed two or fewer in 17 of the 20 and never more than three. A WCHA Goaltender of the Year contender, Nell ranks first in the league in goals against average (1.46) and save percentage (.943). He is second in shutouts (three) and winning percentage (.675). Nell leads the nation in save percentage and ranks second in goals against average (.04 out of first). In just 32 career starts, Nell has earned six shutouts, third-most in program history. He needs just one more to match the school record of seven, held jointly by Tyler Masters (1999-03) and Andrew Hammond (2010-13).

>>THE OFFENSIVE BARRAGE
The Falcons' 12-goal barrage against Alaska-Anchorage was an offensive explosion unlike any by a BGSU team in a long time. Among the feats accomplished:
* 12 goals are most in regular-season series since 12 vs. Alaska (Jan. 7-8, 2005)
* 21 assists are most in regular-season series since 24 vs. Alaska (Jan. 7-8, 2005)
* 33 points are most in regular-season series since 36 vs Alaska (Jan. 7-8, 2005)
* 10 or more players with multiple points in regular season series are most since 13 vs. Alaska (Jan. 7-8, 2005)
* 17 or more players with one or more points in regular season series are most since 18 vs. Alabama-Huntsville (Oct. 22-23, 2010)
* 12 assists and 18 points on Jan. 22 are most in single game since Jan. 25, 2014 vs. Lake Superior
* 10 combined goal scorers in back-to-back games are most since 12 in games at Connecticut (Dec. 30, 2005) and vs. Colgate (Jan. 3, 2006)
* 78 shots on goal are most in regular season series since 89 at Alabama-Huntsville (Oct. 17-18, 2014)

>>DEFENSE, DEFENSE
Bowling Green is on pace to shatter the program record for fewest goals allowed in a season. The 1975-76 team allowed a program-low 90 goals in 32 games. This year, the Falcons have given up just 50 goals through the first 27 contests. BGSU is on pace to end the regular season with only 70 goals allowed, despite playing 38 games.

>>MORE DEFENSE
BGSU has held opponents to three or fewer goals in 21 consecutive games and 25 of the team's 27 games this season. The 21-game streak is a school record, as the Falcons broke the previous mark of 14 in their 6-3 win on Jan. 2 against Clarkson. That 14-game stretch occurred during the 2012-13 season. This string of excellence has helped BGSU achieve a 1.85 goals against average, which would shatter the school record (2.385) by more than a half-goal per game. In the 41 years of Falcon hockey prior to the arrival of Chris Bergeron, BGSU had six seasons with a 3.00 or better goals against average. Bergeron's teams have already matched that total in his six seasons, and his defenses own four of the top five seasons for goals against average in school history.

>>CAN I GET A BIG MAC WITH THAT?
BGSU freshman defenseman Connor McDonald had a season-long four-game point streak, posting assists in both games of the Minnesota State series, sandwiched between assists in games vs. Northern Michigan and at Bemidji State. McDonald was a team-best +4 on-ice during the critical Minnesota State series and is +9 in the last 12 games, which ties him for the overall team lead at +10. He is the only freshman on the team to have played in every game this year. McDonald posted his first multi-point game of his career with two assists against Clarkson on Jan. 3, then scored his first collegiate goal in the 6-2 win over Alaska Anchorage on Jan. 22.

>>OFFENSIVE SPARK
Junior forward Matt Pohlkamp had a career night on Saturday (Nov. 21) against Alabama-Huntsville. He scored BGSU's first two goals and assisted on two others in the 4-3 victory over the Chargers. The four-point game is a career-best for Pohlkamp and is the first four-point game by a Falcon since Ryan Carpenter did it during a 5-2 win over Michigan Tech on March 15, 2014. That win sent Bowling Green to the 2014 WCHA Final Five. Pohlkamp has since added his sixth goal of the season on Friday, Jan. 22 against Alaska-Anchorage and leads BGSU with 17 points.

>>THE FALCON FLYER
Sophomore defenseman Mark Friedman, a third round draft pick of the Philadelphia Flyers, turned around a slow start and has been the team's anchor defensively. Friedman had just two points and was +2 on-ice through the first 14 games of the season. However, over the last 13 games, Friedman has three goals and six assists and is +8 on-ice for a team-best +10. He is tied for most assists (12) and points (16) among WCHA defensemen. Friedman had two points in the series against Alaska-Anchorage and has scored points in four of his last five games.

>>OVERTIME IS THE RIGHT TIME
Bowling Green has played in eight overtime games through the first 27 contests of the season, and the Falcons are 2-1-5 in games with an extra session. The program record for overtime games in a season is 11, in both the 2003-04 and 1991-92 seasons.

>>DU-FOUR SCORE
Junior forward Kevin Dufour has enjoyed a resurgence since the calendar flipped to 2016. Dufour began the season with seven goals and nine points in Bowling Green's first 12 games but had gone eight consecutive contests without earning a point. Beginning with BGSU's 6-3 victory over Clarkson on Jan. 2, Dufour has posted five points in six games played. Against Miami on Jan. 16, he scored his first goal since Nov. 20 against Alabama-Huntsville. Dufour has 14 points and is tied for second on the team with eight goals.

>>ROAD WARRIORS
BGSU went 11-6-4 away from the BGSU Ice Arena in 2014-15. The team had not won more than 11 games away from home since the 1987-88 team posted 16 victories. The Falcons are 7-5-1 on the road in 2015-16, a pace that would again give them a double-digit road victory total.

>>NHL ALUMS
Three Bowling Green alumni have seen action in the NHL this year and one head coach is also a Falcon. Defenseman Kevin Bieksa has played in each of the Anaheim Ducks' first 46 games (as of Jan. 24, 2016), while goalie Andrew Hammond, who took the Ottawa Senators on a wild ride a year ago, now has 33 career decisions (as of Jan. 24, 2016) with a record of 23-6-0-4. Ryan Carpenter, a member of the San Jose Sharks organization, made his NHL debut on Dec. 12 against the Minnesota Wild, centering the team's fourth line. Buffalo Sabres' first year head coach Dan Bylsma was just inducted in the BGSU Athletics Hall of Fame on Oct. 9 and is a Stanley Cup winner in Pittsburgh as well as having coached the 2014 US Winter Olympic team.

>>THE BURKE WALL
In a 6-3 win over Clarkson, senior goalie Tommy Burke recorded his 37th career victory to tie Al Sarachman (1973-77) for ninth place all-time on the BGSU goalie leaderboard. He needs just one more win to tie Tyler Masters (1999-03) for eighth. Gary Kruzich (1983-87) is the all-time Falcon goalie leader with 88 career wins. Burke is 4-3-0 during the 2015-16 season.

>>SEEING 20-20
With 23 wins during the 2014-15 season, Bowling Green posted the 19th 20-win season in program history, a mark with includes five 30-win seasons. It is the first time the team won 20 games since the 1995-96 campaign. At 15-7-5, the Falcons are vying to earn back-to-back 20-win seasons for the first time since 1994-95 and 1995-96.

>>FOR THE LONG HAUL
Bowling Green head coach Chris Bergeron signed a five-year contract extension following the 2014-15 season that will keep him at the helm of the Falcons through the 2022-23 season. Bergeron, who is in his sixth season at BGSU, compiled 80 wins through his first five seasons and has led the Falcons to a win total increase in each of those campaigns. That five-year run of improved win totals is a first in team history. The Falcons' 23 wins in 2014-15 were the most for BGSU in 19 years, since they won 26 in 1995-96. Bergeron has also led the Falcons to at least one best-of-three postseason series victory in each of the last five seasons. BGSU is the only program in the country to accomplish this feat.

>>THE VOICE ON THE MIC
All games this season can be heard on the radio by tuning into 88.1 WBGU-FM. Evan Pivnick will provide the play-by-play commentary throughout the season. The pregame show will air 30 minutes prior to the opening face-off. The broadcast can be heard globally on www.bgsufalcons.com and WBGUFM.com.

>>WCHA.TV IS LIVE
In partnership with industry leader Stretch Internet, WCHA.tv will allow fans to watch all 10 league teams and up to 196 games during the 2015-16 season on just about any device – computer, tablet, phone and many Smart TVs – with a responsive experience customized for that particular medium. High-quality HD streams, when available from the originating arena, will be viewable in multiple screen layout options (including picture-in-picture, multi-view format to watch up to four games simultaneously and full-screen video). For more information, visit WCHA.tv.

>>LIVE STATS
Live stats for all BGSU home games are available on the BGSU website at BGSUFalcons.com. Navigate to the hockey schedule for links to all available ways to follow the action.

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