Bowling Green State University Athletics
BG Icers Face Ohio State In Key Home-And-Home Series
February 22, 2000 | Ice Hockey
Feb. 22, 2000
The Bowling Green State University hockey team, after earning one point versus Notre Dame (3-5, 1-1 OT) this past weekend, will conclude February with a home-and-home series against the Buckeyes of Ohio State. The Feb. 25 contest in Columbus begins at 7:05 p.m., with Saturday's game in BG starting at 7:35 p.m.
UPCOMING GAMES ...
BG will complete the regular-season with a home-and-home series versus Michigan. The March 3 match in BG begins at 7:35 p.m., with the regular-season finale in Ann Arbor starting at 7:05 p.m.
THE COACH ...
Falcon mentor Buddy Powers is in 82nd place on the NCAA all-time win list with 226 victories. He trails current New Hampshire coach Dick Umile (90-present) by one win. 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 10-10-1 record against Ohio State after the teams split their weekend series last month. Powers record at the BGSU Ice Arena against the Buckeyes is 7-4-0, while his record in Columbus is 3-6-1.
THE SERIES ...
Bowling Green leads the all-time series against Ohio State with an 83-45-4 mark. BGSU has won three of the last four games, but is 3-6-1 in the last 10 meetings.
The Falcons have a 51-16-2 record at home versus OSU, including winning each of the last two games at the BGSU Ice Arena by identical 3-0 scores.
BG's record in Columbus is 31-26-2. Bowling Green is 1-3-0 in neutral site contests (three games at Joe Louis Arena, while the first neutral site meeting was in the 1972 Cleveland Festival Consolation game).
There have been 19 overtime games with OSU leading 8-7-4, while in the 33 one-goal contests, BG has an 18-15 advantage.
PREVIEWING OHIO STATE ...
Ohio State has a 10-18-4 overall record after splitting at Ferris State (2-1, 3-4) this past weekend. The Buckeyes are currently in 11th place in the CCHA with a league mark of 6-15-3.
Junior forward Jean-Francois Dufour leads the Buckeyes in scoring with 30 points on 12 goals and a team-leading 18 assists. Senior forward Eric Meloche has a team-best 10 power-play goals and 15 total goals among his 26 points. Freshman center Luke Pavlas has 16 points on six goals and 10 assists, while defensemen Ryan Jestadt, a senior, and Andre Signoretti, a junior, each have 13 points on two goals and 11 assists.
Senior Ray Aho has seen the majority of time in the OSU net. In 31 games, he has a record of 10-16-4 with a 2.77 goals- against average with a .915 save percentage. Freshman Peter Wishloff has played 150 minutes with an 0-2-0 record and a 4.40 goals-against average. Wishloff's save percentage is .857.
Ohio State has scored 30 power-play goals in 207 chances (14.5%), while allowing 40 man-advantage markers in 211 opportunities (81.0%).
Four of the Buckeyes last seven games have gone into overtime with OSU recording an 0-2-2 mark in those contests. Ohio State has played its opponents nearly even in the first two periods (23-25 in the first, 32-35 in the second), but has been outscored 33-15 in the third period and 2-0 in overtime.
REVIEWING THE NOTRE DAME SERIES ...
After falling behind 2-0 in the first period, Bowling Green cut the Notre Dame deficit to one on three occasions, but could not score the equalizer in falling to the Irish 5-3 at the BGSU Ice Arena on Feb. 18.
UND's Connor Dunlop scored a short-handed goal and Joe Dusbabek added an even-strength marker in the opening period giving the Irish a 2-0 advantage at the first intermission.
BG freshman Tyler Knight made it 2-1 when he redirected a Ryan Murphy pass behind Notre Dame goalie Tony Zasowski with 3:01 left in the middle stanza. UND's Ben Simon scored on an Irish power play with eight seconds remaining in the second period to regain a two-goal cushion.
Junior Curtis Valentine pulled BG to within one at 3-2 2:38 into the third period when he took a long lead pass from Doug Schueller and beat Zasowski. Simon scored the Irish's game-winning goal seven seconds into a power play. Simon won an offensive draw back to defenseman Tyson Fraser and his blueline blast went wide of the net but a lively rebound off the boards came directly to Simon on the doorstep and he tallied his ninth of the campaign.
The Falcons would again come within a goal when Craig Desjarlais scored during a BG power play 53 seconds after Simon's second of the contest. Dan Carlson completed the scoring with an empty-net goal with 18 seconds remaining.
Zasowski made 31 saves in the Irish cage including 17 in the first period. Tyler Masters made 18 stops for BG. UND scored on two of its three man-advantage opportunities, while the Falcons cashed in on one of their five power-play chances.
Bowling Green, who entered the Feb. 19 contest with a 1-13 mark when trailing after two periods, rallied in the third period to tie Notre Dame 1-1 (OT) at the BGSU Ice Arena.
After a scoreless first period, Irish freshman Jake Wiegand recorded his first collegiate point when he scored at the 8:17 mark of the middle stanza. Connor Dunlop started the UND scoring play by winning an offensive zone draw back to Evan Nielsen.
The Falcons scored the equalizer with 8:19 remaining in the third period when Ryan Fultz tipped in an Adam Edinger cross-crease pass. BG's scoring play started when sophomore defenseman Joe Statkus kept the puck in at the left point and fed Zach Ham in the corner. Ham sent a pass to Edinger in the slot, who in turn sent a backhand pass to Fultz.
Bowling Green junior goaltender Shawn Timm improved his unbeaten streak to five games (4-0-1) by turning aside 30 of Notre Dame's 31 shots. Notre Dame rookie netminder Tony Zasowski made 20 saves on BG's 21 shots. UND, who had scored two power-play goals on Friday, was blanked on its six power-play chances. The Falcons had their streak of consecutive games with a power-play goal end at nine, as BG failed to score on its three man-advantage opportunities.
FALCON NOTES ...
Bowling Green rookie goalie Tyler Masters recorded the first point by a Falcon netminder this year when he assisted on BG's second goal on Friday.
The Falcons had their streak of consecutive games with a power-play goal end at nine, as BG failed to score on its three man-advantage opportunities on Saturday. During the streak, Bowling Green had 6-3 record and converted 16 of its 71 power play chances (22.5%).
Junior goalie Shawn Timm has a 4-0-1 mark in his last five decisions and has allowed more than two goals in a contest only once in his last seven appearances (includes two relief appearances). In the seven games, he has stopped 163 of 173 shots (.942 save percentage) with a 1.70 goals-against average in 352:56.
Senior defenseman B.J. Adams is in ninth place on BG's all- time penalty minute chart with 286. He trails Kelly Perrault (1993-97) by two minutes and Marc Potvin (1986-90) by three minutes. Perrault is currently skating for the International Hockey League's Long Beach Ice Dogs, while Potvin is the head coach and director of hockey operations of the East Coast Hockey League's Mississippi Sea Wolves.
In BG's last 10 games the Falcons are 6-3-1 and have outscored their opponents 38-26. In the first 20 games, Bowling Green had a 7-13 mark and was outscored 71-54 (3.55 to 2.70). In addition to improving their scoring by more than one goal a game (2.70 to 3.80), the defense has improved by nearly a goal as well (3.55 to 2.60).
The BG power play is operating at 21.6% (16 of 74) in the last 10 games after scoring 15 times in 116 chances (12.9%) in the first 20 games.
The Falcon penalty killing has also improved. BG was successful 84.8% (112 of 132) in the first 20 games, and 85.5% (53 of 62) in the last 10 games. Bowling Green entered this past weekend's series against Notre Dame ranked 13th in the country in penalty killing percentage (new NCAA statistics will be released on Tuesday, Feb. 22).
Freshman forward Ryan Fultz scored the game-tying goal in Saturday's 1-1 (OT) draw against Notre Dame. Fultz, who scored five goals in his first 19 games, has six goals in the last 10 contests, including two game-winners.
Junior left wing Ryan Murphy has nine points in the first game of a weekend series on six goals and three assists. In the second game, he has six points on one goal and five assists.
Bowling Green has clinched 11th place and would secure eighth place by winning its last four games. The Falcons "points to clinch" are 3 vs. OSU, 7 vs. WMU, 8 vs. UNO, 10 vs. FSU, 11 vs. Miami and 11 vs. Notre Dame.
BGSU TO ANNOUNCE ALL-CENTURY TEAM ....
The Bowling Green State University All-Century hockey team sponsored by the Sentinel Tribune will be announced this Saturday. There will be a reception for the nominees and the all-century team before the game. All attending will be recognized between the first and second periods, and the team will be unveiled at this time. A first and second team will be named.
