Bowling Green State University Athletics
BG Icers Begin Stretch Run
January 27, 2000 | Ice Hockey
Jan. 27, 2000
The Bowling Green State University hockey team, after a sweep of Alabama-Huntsville (4-3, 5-1) last weekend at the BGSU Ice Arena, will try to equal its longest winning streak of the season (three games from Oct. 23-30) this weekend when Northern Michigan visits the BGSU Ice Arena for a pair of CCHA league contests.
The Falcons will play their final 12 regular-season contests against CCHA members beginning with this weekend's series against the Wildcats. Face-off both nights is at 7:35 p.m.
UPCOMING GAMES ...
BG will have its final regular-season two-game road weekend Feb. 4-5 when the Falcons travel to Omaha to face the CCHA's newest member, the University of Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks. Face-off both nights at the Omaha Civic Auditorium is 8:05 p.m. Eastern.
Bowling Green will play a home-and-home series the following weekend against Miami. Friday's contest (Feb. 11) in BG starts at 7:35 p.m., while Saturday's rematch in Oxford is slated to begin at 7:05 p.m.
THE COACH ...
Falcon mentor Buddy Powers moved into 84th place on the NCAA all-time win list with BG's victory over Union on Dec. 30. He trails Rube Bjorkman (RPI, New Hampshire, North Dakota - 63-78) by two victories. There have been more than 725 NCAA men's collegiate head hockey coaches.
Powers served as head coach at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) for five seasons (1989-90 through 1993-94) prior to being named to his current position at Bowling Green on July 12, 1994. He spent one season as the head coach at Rochester Institute of Technology (1988-89) leading the Tigers to a second-place finish in the Division III national championships.
Powers has a 2-4-0 record against Northern Michigan, including a 1-1 mark at the BGSU Ice Arena.
THE SERIES ...
Bowling Green leads the all-time series with a 24-16-3 record against the Wildcats. The Falcons have a 12-6-1 mark versus Northern Michigan at the BGSU Ice Arena.
NMU has won seven of the last 10 meetings, but BG is 7-3 in its last 10 home games against the Wildcats.
PREVIEWING NORTHERN MICHIGAN ...
Northern Michigan was idle this past weekend and enters the series against BG with an overall mark of 16-6-2. NMU is in second-place in the CCHA with a league record of 11-3-2.
The Wildcats have compiled an 8-2 mark away from its new olympic-sized arena (Berry Events Center). Head coach Rick Comley, in his 24th year at NMU, has moved into eighth place on the NCAA All-Time win list with 547 victories. His victory total includes three-years at Lake Superior (1973-76).
NMU is led in scoring by senior left wing Roger Trudeau (15-11--26, 4 PPG, 4 SHG), senior right wing J.P. Vigier (10-10--20, 4 SHG), senior left wing Bryan Phillips (7-13--20) and freshman forward Chris Gobert (11-8--19, 4 PPG). Freshman Jimmy Jackson is the highest scoring NMU blueliner with 14 points on six goals and eight assists. Jackson is tied with Trudeau for the team lead with four game-winning goals.
Junior goalie Dan Ragusett (11-4-1, 2.00, .910, 4 shutouts) and senior Duane Hoey (5-2-1, 2.21, .897, three shutouts) have led the Wildcats to a school-record seven shutouts this year.
Northern has a CCHA-best (along with Michigan) nine short-handed goals this season with a penalty killing percentage of 83.6 (127 for 152). The Wildcat power-play has scored 24 goals in 154 chances.
REVIEWING THE ALABAMA-HUNTSVILLE SERIES ...
Bowling Green rallied from deficits of 2-0 and 3-2 to post a 4-3 victory over an inspired Alabama-Huntsville team Jan. 21 at the BGSU Ice Arena.
Falcon senior center Adam Edinger scored twice in the third period including the game-winner with 2:16 remaining to give BG its first win of the season when trailing after 40 minutes.
Freshman Tyler Knight scored a power-play goal midway through the middle stanza to put BG on the board. Edinger's first goal of the contest came during a BG power play and tied the game at two.
Charger Jessi Otis put UAH in front 3-2 with 5:40 left in regulation as he scored during a goal-mouth scramble in front of Falcon netminder Tyler Masters. BG rookie Ryan Fultz tied the game at three with 3:46 remaining when he batted a loose puck into an empty UAH cage to set up Edinger's heroics.
BG's game-winning goal started when sophomore defenseman Marc Barlow kept the puck in at the left point and fed Zach Ham who found Edinger in the slot. Edinger roofed a backhand shot over Charger goalie Steve Briere to put the Falcons in front for the first time in the contest.
Briere finished the contest with 31 saves, while Masters turned aside 22 UAH shots. Both teams went two-for-seven on the power play.
The Falcons completed the weekend sweep of Alabama-Huntsville with a 5-1 triumph Saturday night at the BGSU Ice Arena.
BG scored three times in the final nine minutes of the opening period and added two more lamp-lighters in the first 10 minutes of the middle stanza for the victory.
B.J. Adams netted a power-play goal at the 10:59 mark of the first period off an assist from Greg Day. Day would then set up Ryan Fultz for the game-winner just 43 seconds later. Day would complete the first period scoring as he went coast-to-coast for his team-leading ninth goal of the season.
Marc Barlow and Curtis Valentine added second period power-play goals to complete the BG scoring. Barlow's third of the year was assisted by Fultz and Grady Moore, while Valentine's fourth goal in the last six games was assisted by Dennis Williams and Doug Schueller.
The Chargers would spoil Shawn Timm's shutout bid as Ryan McCormack scored his second of the weekend at the 8:08 mark of the third period.
Timm finished with 18 saves in the contest as BG outshot the guests 53-19. UAH starting goalie Steve Briere stopped 18 of 21 Falcon shots in the opening period, while Mark Byrne played the final 40 minutes and made 30 saves.
BG scored on three of its 14 power-play chances, while stopping all five UAH man-advantage opportunities.
FALCON NOTES ...
BG's power play from Oct.-Dec. 1999 was 11-97 (11.3%) with seven short-handed goals allowed. In January, the Falcons have scored on nine of 40 man-advantage opportunities (22.5%) and have not allowed a short-handed goal.
The BG penalty killing has continued its consistent performance. Before the new year, the Falcons were at 84.7% with two short-handed goals for in the first 17 games. In the last five games, the success rate is 84.8% with one short-handed goal for.
Bowling Green is 3-1 in its last four games and has outscored its opponents 13-8 in that span. Every Falcon skater had at least one shot on goal in each game against Alabama-Huntsville.
Senior defenseman B.J. Adams, who leads the team in plus/minus (+5), scored his second power-play goal of the season after recording one point (an assist) last season.
Sophomore defenseman Grady Moore has a point in 10 of BG's last 12 games scoring 12 points on four goals and eight assists. He also leads the team in power-play goals (four) and power-play points (nine), and is tied-for-first on the squad in power-play assists (five).
Junior left wing Curtis Valentine scored a power-play goal Saturday versus the Chargers giving him four goals in the last six games. He leads all BG forwards in plus/minus (+3) and has been on the ice for only two even-strength goals against in the last 15 games.
Junior netminder Shawn Timm lowered his goals-against average from 3.68 to 2.90 by stopping 18 of Alabama-Huntsville's 19 shots. UAH's lone goal came with 11:52 left in the third period.
Six of BG's top seven scorers are either freshmen or sophomores. Breakdown by class: freshmen - 12-15--27 (two players), sophomores - 26-41--67 (seven players), juniors - 13-17--30 (six players), and seniors - 12-27--39 (six players).
