Bowling Green State University Athletics
BGSU Icers Begin Second Half
January 07, 2000 | Ice Hockey
Jan. 3, 2000
The Bowling Green State University hockey team, after claiming third place in the 1999 Rensselaer/HSBC Holiday Hockey Tournament on Dec. 29-30 in Troy, New York, will play six of its next seven games at the friendly confines of the BGSU Ice Arena. The Falcons begin the new year hosting Miami this Saturday (Jan. 8) with face-off slated for 7:35 p.m.
UPCOMING GAMES ...
BG will face Ohio State the following weekend in a home-and-home series. Friday's contest (Jan. 14) in BG begins at 7:35 p.m., while Saturday's rematch in Columbus is slated to start at 7:05 p.m. Central Ohio Sport! Television will air the Saturday contest on a one-day tape delay basis to more than 300,000 households in Columbus served by Insight Communications and Time Warner Communications. The Falcons will play their final regular-season non-conference series the weekend of Jan. 21-22 when the Chargers of Alabama-Huntsville come to Bowling Green.
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 current New Hampshire head coach Dick Umile. 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 7-6-3 record against Miami following BG's 7-0 loss in Oxford earlier this season. Powers record at the BGSU Ice Arena against the RedHawks is 5-1-2.
THE SERIES ...
Bowling Green leads the all-time series against Miami with a 50-17-5 mark. BGSU won last year's season series with a 2-0-1 mark outscoring the RedHawks 14-8. The Falcons have a 29-5-3 record at home versus the RedHawks.
PREVIEWING UPCOMING OPPONENT ...
Miami is 8-7-2 overall despite dropping its last three contests (4-1 at Ohio State, 5-2 vs. North Dakota, and 4-3 vs. Nebraska-Omaha). The RedHawks have a 5-4-2 CCHA mark, good for seventh place.
MU is led in scoring by senior forward Dustin Whitecotton (7-13--20), junior forward Pat Leahy (8-11--19), freshman forward Nick Jardine (7-7--14) and sophomore forward Evan Cheverie (6-8--14). Senior Josh Mizerek is the team's top scoring blueliner with eight points on two goals and six assists.
First-year head coach Enrico Blasi has used three goalies with freshman David Burleigh seeing the bulk of the minutes. Burleigh is 6-3 with a 2.01 goals-against average and a .906 save percentage. Seniors Andy Marsch (1-3-1, 3.36, .874) and Ian Olsen (1-1-1, 4.33, .882) have also seen time in the Miami net.
REVIEWING THE HOLIDAY TOURNAMENT ...
Bowling Green claimed third place in the Rensselaer/ HSBC Holiday Hockey Tournament in Troy, NY on Dec. 29-30. The Falcons suffered a 3-2 setback to tournament host RPI in the semifinals, but defeated Union, 5-4 OT, in the consolation contest.
In Wednesday's contest against the Engineers, BG jumped out to an early 1-0 lead when Scott Hewson scored just 36 seconds into the game. The NCAA's leading goal scorer, Brad Tapper, tied the game at one with a breakaway goal less than five minutes later.
RPI grabbed a 2-1 lead with a power-play goal midway through the middle stanza. Falcon junior Ryan Murphy scored with the man-advantage at 17:44 of the second period to tie the game at two after 40 minutes.
RPI's Doug Shepherd redirected a point-shot past BG goalie Shawn Timm for the game-winner 4:06 into the final period. The Falcons had numerous scoring chances but RPI goalie Joel Laing made 45 saves including 19 in the third period. Timm was credited with 30 stops. BG went one-for-six on the power play while limiting RPI to one goal in four opportunities.
BG scored the only two goals of the opening period in Thursday's contest versus Union. Dennis Williams scored his first career short-handed goal at 17:19, while Adam Edinger tallied his fourth of the campaign at 19:10.
The Skating Dutchmen scored both goals in the second period to tie the game heading into the third period. BG defenseman Grady Moore scored a power-play goal at the 8:00 mark, but UC's Jason Ralph responded at 9:11. Falcon junior Curtis Valentine's lamp-lighter at 12:44 gave BG a 4-3 advantage, until UC's Jeff Sproat short-handed goal at 15:38 tied the contest at four.
Moore was credited with the game-winning goal 4:01 into overtime when his shot from the right point was deflected in by Sproat past his goalie Brandon Snee. Snee made 39 saves in the contest, while Timm turned aside 46 shots.
FALCON NOTES ...
Senior defenseman Michael Jones was the lone Falcon named to the all-tournament team. He assisted on both BG goals against RPI, while also garnering an assist on BG's first goal against Union.
Junior goalie Shawn Timm made his first start since Jan. 3, 1999, in the Falcons 3-2 setback to RPI. He set a career-high with 46 saves in the overtime victory over Union. It was Timm's first win since Oct. 9, 1998, (4-2 at Miami).
Senior blueliner B.J. Adams, the team-leader in plus/minus rating at +4, recorded his first assist since Nov. 13, 1998, when he started the scoring play on BG's fourth goal versus Union.
Sophomore defenseman Grady Moore had his first collegiate multi-goal game when he was credited with the game-winner in overtime against the Dutchmen. It was also Moore's first non-power-play goal this year. Eight of his 10 career goals have come with the man-advantage.
Junior left wing Curtis Valentine, an area native of the Capital District (Gansevoort, NY), scored his first goal of the season in Thursday's win and his first goal since Feb. 13, 1999 (at UAF).
BG head coach Buddy Powers is one win shy of his 100th as the Falcon mentor. In his sixth season at the helm of the Falcon program, Powers has a 99-97-14 mark.
After scoring the first goal of the game in only four of its first 15 contests, BG scored the first goal in both games in Troy, NY.
For the second year in a row, one of BG's holiday tournament games went into overtime. In 1998, the Falcons posted a 3-2 win over Cornell in a semi-final contest in the Badger Showdown, while in 1999, the Falcons recorded a 5-4 win over Union in the consolation game of the Rensselaer tournament.
SKATE WITH THE FALCONS ...
The Falcon Club is sponsoring its annual "Skate with the Falcons" this Sunday from 6-7:30 p.m. at the BGSU Ice Arena.
Admission charge is $5.00 (plus skate rental if required), or $4.00 for children who wear their hockey or skating sweaters, jackets, or jerseys. A pizza party with the players following the skate with an autograph session will take place from 6:45-7:30 p.m..
BUS TRIP TO COLUMBUS ...
The Falcon Club is sponsoring a bus trip to Columbus for the Jan. 15 BGSU at Ohio State hockey game. The bus will depart from the Ice Arena parking lot at 3:30 p.m. The cost is $25, which includes game ticket and bus fare. Call 419/372-7063 to make reservations.
