Hockey Welcomes Northern Michigan for League Play at the Ice Arena

Friday, February 3

Bowling Green, Ohio

7:07 PM

Bowling Green State University

Northern Michigan

Hockey Welcomes Northern Michigan for League Play at the Ice Arena

January 31, 2017 | Ice Hockey

By: Jenna Jorgensen (Assistant Director of Athletic Communications)

Bowling Green Falcons (14-15-2, 12-11-1 WCHA)
vs.
Northern Michigan Wildcats (7-17-4, 5-12-3 WCHA)

GAME INFORMATION	Friday, Feb. 3, 7:07 p.m. ET Saturday, Feb. 4, 7:07 p.m. ET
LOCATION	Bowling Green, Ohio (Slater Family Ice Arena)
RADIO	Falcon Radio Network (Evan Pivnick)
LIVE STATS	BGSUFalcons.com
WATCH ONLINE	WCHA.tv
LISTEN ONLINE	BGSUFalcons.com
GAME NOTES	Bowling Green

>>FALCONS ON TAP
The Bowling Green hockey program will welcome Western Collegiate Hockey Association foe Northern Michigan to the Slater Family Ice Arena for a pair of games Friday and Saturday evenings. Friday's game will feature the characters from Disney's "Frozen" and will be a Falcons Fighting Hunger event. Any fan who brings three canned goods to donate will receive a free Falcon magnet.

Also be sure to bring a new or gently used teddy bear to Friday night's game to participate in the annual Teddy Bear Toss! After the first period, bears will be thrown out on the ice to benefit Dance Marathon and the Miracle Families they support. All bears must be in a plastic bag before going out onto the ice.

>>VERSUS NORTHERN MICHIGAN
All-time, Bowling Green holds a 48-41-8 advantage over Northern Michigan. The Falcons are currently on a six-game win streak over the Wildcats, including a sweep last season in a combined score of 6-4. Of the last six victories over the Wildcats, four wins have all come in one-goal games, although the two most recent games featured the Falcons winning by two goals or more. In November, Bowling Green swept Northern Michigan by a combined score of 10-4, with a Friday night final of 5-1 followed up by a Saturday night score of 5-3. Nine different Falcons scored, while a total of 14 earned a point in the series.

This year's junior class made an impact in their sophomore series against Northern Michigan, as the group accounts for four of the five goal-scorers from the series. Bowling Green returns four scoring juniors including Mark Friedman, who scored once each night, as well as Tyler Spezia, Brett D'Andrea and Mitch McLain.

>>ROAD SWEEP REDEMPTION
With the road sweep of Northern Michigan this last weekend, it was the first time since the team was at Bemidji State Dec. 11-12, 2015 that the Falcons have marked two consecutive wins over the home team. Bowling Green went on to sweep Alabama Huntsville on the road the following week, putting the team on a four-game win streak mid-November.

>>AWARD-WORTHY PERFORMANCES VS. NMU
Senior Kevin Dufour was awarded WCHA Offensive Player of the Week after tallying goals in both games at Northern Michigan in December. Dufour accounted for the game-winning goal in Friday's 5-1 win, as well as Bowling Green's third goal in the 5-3 win on Saturday. Collectively, Dufour marked two goals, five shots on goal, one blocked shot and a +2 rating on the weekend. With his help, the Falcons earned its first sweep of the season, while Dufour was acknowledged with his third Player of the Week award of his career.

Transfer Matt Meier also had a standout night against the Wildcats when he scored his first goal as a Falcon on Saturday night. The goal came just 2:40 into the game and put Bowling Green up 1-0 to the Wildcats.

>>RECAPPING BIG RAPIDS
On the weekend, Ferris State was able to get the man advantage six times on Friday in addition to four times on Saturday. Bowling Green held its opponent scoreless on the power play for the 15th time this season with Saturday night's kill, and have successfully killed its opponents last 22 consecutive power play opportunities (dating back to Minnesota State, Jan. 14).

Overall, Bowling Green was held to the fewest shots on goal of the season with just 19 testing Ferris State's goaltender Justin Kapelmaster on Saturday evening. It was also the first time of the 2016-17 campaign the Falcons were shutout. Ferris State tallied 35 shots on goal, just one shy of the most allowed by the Falcons this year (36 allowed vs. Michigan Tech, Dec. 9, 2016).

In comparison, Bowling Green outshot the Bulldogs by a 35-23 margin in Friday night's 3-2 overtime win, making it the 15th time this season they have landed 30 or more shots on goal in a game, with a record of 10-3-2.

>>NELL IN NET
With 17 saves in the first period alone, junior goaltender Chris Nell marked the most saves in a 20:00 span Saturday night in the Falcons 5-0 loss at Ferris State. Ultimately, Nell tallied 30 saves on the night for a save percentage of .857, and was just three saves shy of his season-best of 33 (vs. Michigan Tech, Dec. 9). On the weekend, Nell tended the net for 120:34 minutes of play, had seven goals against and made a total of 51 saves with a .879 save percentage.

>>FLYING IN THE LEAGUE
Junior defenseman Mark Friedman currently leads all defensemen in the WCHA with 0.67 points per game, while the 20 points in 29 games ranks him 31st nationally. Most notable, Friedman was able to notch the game-winner Friday night at Ferris State with a spin-around backhand shot just 34 seconds into the extra play in 4-on-4 action.

As a team, the Falcons rank third overall in the WCHA with its 2.87 goals per game average. The offensive mark is third to Lake Superior State's 2.96 goals per game average, and league-leading Minnesota State's 3.07.

>>CAPTAIN'S ADVANTAGE
Senior captain Sean Walker recently earned his team-leading fifth power play goal of the year. In his career, Walker has now earned 10 goals with the man-advantage, only trailing fellow senior Kevin Dufour's 13 career power play goals. The duo accounts for nearly half of the career power play goals on the Bowling Green squad, which is 52 since the start of the 2013-14 season.

>>RETURNING HOME FOR THE SECOND HALF
Bowling Green had many road series to kick off the season, and didn't have its first full home series until the first weekend of November. In the fall, Bowling Green went 7-7-0 on the road, and 3-4-2 at home although the second half will balance out the home atmosphere for the Falcons.

The second half of the season will present ample home ice advantage for the Falcons, as nine of the 13 regular season matchups of the second half will take place at the Slater Family Ice Arena, including all five games of February taking place at home.

>>CENTURY MEN
Senior Sean Walker played in his 150th career game Saturday against Ferris State. Walker is now the active career leader for the Bowling Green squad, along with fellow senior Matt Pohlkamp, who has also appeared in 150 games. The pair leads six current Falcons who have 100+ games of collegiate experience, including Pierre-Luc Mercier (147), Kevin Dufour (144) and Mark Friedman (111).

The most recent addition to the century men is junior Tyler Spezia, who hit his 100-game mark three weeks back in Mankato and is now at 104 games played. Spezia joins fellow junior Mitch McLain who clocked ice time in his 110th game on Saturday against Ferris State.

>>ICE ARENA 50^TH CELEBRATION
The Ice Arena is turning 50 and to honor the historic mark, numerous activities are scheduled and planned for the weekend of Feb. 10-12, 2017. Highlighting the weekend will be the Bowling Green hockey game as they host Mercyhurst in non-conference action on Feb. 11. In addition to current "Voice of the Falcons" Evan Pivnick, legendary NHL broadcaster Mike "Doc" Emrick will join Pivnick on air for the call of the Falcons hockey game.

>>PRESEASON POLLS PEG BOWLING GREEN
Bowling Green was picked to finish first in the WCHA by both the coaches' and media preseason polls, in addition to being ranked No. 14 in the country by USCHO.com. It is just the second time in school history that Bowling Green has been ranked in the first USCHO.com poll of the year since the poll was initiated for the 1997-98 season, and improved from a No. 16 ranking at the start of the 2015-16 campaign. The Falcons did earn votes (but not enough to be ranked) in the USCHO.com preseason polls in 2014 (11 votes), 2013 (4 votes), 2008 (3 votes), 2005 (1 vote), 2004 (1 vote), 1999 (1 vote) and 1997 (3 votes). Bowling Green is also ranked No. 15 in the first USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll of the season. This is the Falcons first appearance in the poll since receiving a No. 13 ranking on 12/14/15.

>>ALL-CONFERENCE ACTION
Multiple Falcons were named for preseason All-WCHA, including junior Mark Friedman and goaltender Chris Nell. Senior Sean Walker also received votes for the Preseason All-WCHA Team, while Friedman and Nell joined Walker in Bowling Green upperclassmen that received votes for Preseason WCHA Player of the Year. Three Falcon freshmen were recognized for the Preseason WCHA Rookie of the Year award, in defenseman Alec Rauhauser and forwards Frederic Letourneau and Casey Linkenheld.

>>FALCONS IN THE BIG TIME
In addition to three current NHL draftees on the Falcons roster (Ryan Bednard, Mark Friedman, and Adam Smith), two Falcon alumni have made NHL rosters for the 2016-17 campaign. Goaltender Andrew Hammond has begun his third season with the Ottawa Senators, after recording the most wins to start a career by going 20-1-2 in his first 23 NHL games. The second Falcon alum in the big time is Kevin Bieksa, who is beginning his second season with the Anaheim Ducks after an eight-year stint with the Vancouver Canucks.

>>SEEING 20/20
With a 22-14-6 record over the 2015-16 campaign, the Falcons posted back-to-back 20+ win seasons for the first time in 20 years. With 23 wins during the 2014-15 season, Bowling Green posted the 19th 20-win season in program history, followed by the 20th 20-win season with the 22 victories last year. Historically, Bowling Green has marked five 30-win seasons, although the 2014-15 season was the first time the team won 20 games since the 1995-96 campaign has been on a roll ever since.

>>RETURNING OFFENSE TO THE ICE
Despite losing the leading scorer from last season in Mark Cooper (16 goals), the Falcons return a vast majority of their offensive firepower for this season. Nine of the next top-11 scorers on the Falcons squad return to the ice for the 2016-17 season, including seniors Matt Pohlkamp (25 goals) and Kevin Dufour (36 goals). All told, Bowling Green returns 18 of the 25 players who scored at least one point last season.

>>EVAN PIVNICK "THE VOICE" ON THE MIC
All games this season can be heard on the radio by tuning into the Falcon Radio Network and can be heard globally on www.bgsufalcons.com and WBGUFM.com. Evan Pivnick recently reached his 100th game mark of calling for the Falcons, and will continue to provide top-notch play-by-play commentary throughout the season. The pregame show will air 30 minutes prior to the opening face-off.

>>WCHA.tv
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 Bowling Green home games and select road matchups are available on the BGSU website at BGSUFalcons.com. Navigate to the hockey schedule for links to all available ways to follow the action while the Falcons are both at home and on the road.