Bowling Green State University Athletics
Icers To Finish First Half At Home Against Nebraska Omaha
December 03, 2000 | Ice Hockey
Dec. 3, 2000
Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
Nebraska Omaha (7-8-1, 4-5-1) at Bowling Green (2-8-4, 2-6-4)
7:05 p.m. - Friday-Saturday, December 8-9BGSU Ice Arena (5,000)
Series Record: UNO leads 3-2-0
Last Meetings: at UNO 3-1/Mar. 14, 2000
Friday Radio: WBVI-FM (96.7)
Saturday Radio: WBGU-FM (88.1)
SERIES HISTORY
Bowling Green trails in the all-time series versus Nebraska Omaha with a 2-3-0 record. All five previous meetings have been played at the Omaha Civic Auditorium. The two teams split a non-conference series on Jan. 2-3, 1999 (BG 4-2, UNO 6-1) and a CCHA series on Feb. 4-5, 2000 (UNO 4-3, BG 3-2). The Mavericks won last year's CCHA Championship play-in game (3-1).
PREVIEWING NEBRASKA OMAHA
The Mavericks earned three points in the league standings this past weekend with a win (5-1) and tie (2-2 OT) against visiting Alaska Fairbanks.
Senior forward Allan Carr had a hat trick in Friday's victory while classmate Jason White scored the game-tying goal in Saturday's deadlock.
Junior forward Jeff Hoggan (6-7--13, 4 ppg) leads UNO in scoring. He is followed by sophomore forward David Brisson (6-5--11, 3 ppg), sophomore defenseman Greg Zanon (2-8--10) and senior forward Dave Noel-Bernier (1-7--8).
Freshman netminder Dan Ellis played both games this past weekend to improve his overall record to 5-7-1. He has a 2.80 goals-against average and a .906 save percentage in nearly 800 minutes.
The fourth-year varsity program is led by Mike Kemp, a former assistant coach at Gustavus Adolphus, Illinois-Chicago and Wisconsin.
REVIEWING THE MICHIGAN STATE SERIES
Bowling Green held the top-ranked team in the country under its season average in both goals (3.11) and power-play percentage (24.4%) for the weekend, but the Falcons were able to gain one point in the league standings.
BG led 2-0 after the first period on Friday but had to rally late in the third period for a 3-3 (overtime) tie.
The Falcons took advantage of two early penalties on MSU. Curtis Valentine scored his third of the campaign during a five-on-three Falcon power play at the 3:57 mark. Ryan Fultz and Kevin Bieksa assisted on the goal.
BG increased its lead to 2-0 at the 5:06 mark as Ryan Murphy tallied his fourth of the year off assists from Grady Moore and Brian Escobedo.
MSU outshot the Falcons 14-7 in the opening period but BG netminder Tyler Masters turned aside all 14 Spartan shots.
Michigan State scored twice in a span of 41 seconds during the middle stanza. Andrew Bogle scored at 8:18 and Sean Patchell tied the game at 8:59.
The Spartans took their first lead of the contest at the 1:26 mark of the third period when Brian Maloney scored his sixth of the year.
BG scored the equalizer with 4:55 remaining in regulation when MSU goalie Ryan Miller's save of a Greg Day shot caroomed directly to Ryan Fultz who put the puck in the back of the net. Marc Barlow started the Falcon scoring play. In overtime BG attempted seven shots to MSU's three and led in shots on goal 2-1.
BG's Tyler Masters finished the contest with 29 saves, while Ryan Miller turned aside 18 Falcon shots. BG scored twice in five man-advantage opportunities, while blanking the Spartan power play all five of its chances. It was only the second game this year MSU failed to score a power-play goal.
The contest was BG's fifth overtime game in the last eight contests. The three goals allowed by MSU was the most since Oct. 13 (5-4 win at Alaska Anchorage). In the 12 games since, the Spartans had only allowed a total of 16 goals.
The Falcons suffered a 3-1 setback to Michigan State Saturday night at the BGSU Ice Arena.
The Falcons took a 1-0 lead on Mark Wires' short-handed goal just 1:54 into the contest. BG's second man-down goal this season was started when senior defenseman Louis Mass sent a clearing pass from behind his net that bounced over a MSU blueliners stick and was gathered in by Tyler Knight. Knight sent a pass to Wires who waited for MSU goalie Ryan Miller to go down before putting a shot in the top corner.
MSU tied the game at one with 2:34 left in the first period when Adam Hall tallied an even-strength marker off assists from Brian Maloney and Rustyn Dolyny.
BG was assessed six minor penalties in the second period that resulted in two five-on-three Spartan power play goals. Jeremy Jackson scored at the 7:29 mark from Hall and Dolyny to put MSU in front 2-1.
The final goal of the contest was scored by Maloney at the 14:56 mark of the middle stanza off assists from Dolyny and John-Michael Liles.
BG outshot MSU 10-5 in the third period, but the Spartans held a 31-19 advantage for the game. Falcon goalie Tyler Masters made 28 saves, while MSU's Ryan Miller turned aside 18 BG shots. The Spartans were two of eight with the man-advantage, while BG was zero-for-five on the power play.
FALCON TIDBITS
BG has either had a lead or been tied after two periods in five of the last six games.
The Falcons will conclude their pre-holiday schedule and wrap-up the first half of conference play with a home series against Nebraska Omaha this weekend. It will be the Mavericks first visit to the BGSU Ice Arena. All five previous meetings have beeen played at the Omaha Civic Auditorium.
After scoring first in only one of its first 10 games, BG has scored first in three of the last four contests.
Mark Wires short-handed goal on Saturday was his second collegiate goal, first career man-down marker and only the second short-handed tally allowed by MSU this year.
The Spartans had only allowed four power-play goals all season until the Falcons tallied twice with the man-advantage on Friday.
The BG penalty killers had been successful on 15 consecutive chances until MSU scored a five-on-three power-play goal midway through Saturday's second period.
Senior blueliner Louis Mass recorded his eighth collegiate point with an assist on BG's lone goal on Saturday. It was Mass' first point since Feb. 26 vs. Ohio State.
Sophomore forward Tyler Knight made a great pass to set up Mark Wires for BG's goal on Saturday. It was Knight's first assist on the season and first point since Nov. 4 at Northern Michigan.
Freshman defenseman Kevin Bieksa has six assists in the last seven games after recording one assist in his first six games.
BG has had at least two power-play goals in five games this year, and has scored at least one man-advantage marker in eight contests.
Ten different Falcons have power-play points with four players tied for the team lead with five points (Ryan Murphy 3-2--5, Curtis Valentine 2-3--5, Ryan Fultz 1-4--5, and Brian Escobedo 1-4--5).
Five of BG's last nine games have been tied at the end of regulation. The Falcons are 0-1-4 in overtime games this season.
Eight of the last 11 BG games have been decided by one goal or less with the Falcons compiling an 0-4-4 mark in the eight contests. The three games decided by at least two goals were a 4-2 win over Alaska Fairbanks on Oct. 27, a 5-2 win at Ohio State on Nov. 18 and a 3-1 setback to Michigan State on Dec. 2.
Only 10 players have seen action in all 14 contests this season. BGSU has already missed 25 man-games due to injuries.
Ten of BG's 14 games this year were against teams ranked in last week's USA Today/American Hockey Magazine top 15 (or also receiving votes). BG is 1-1-2 in the four games against the team not receiving votes, and 1-7-2 in the 10 games against ranked opponents.
