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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Hockey Travels To Miami This Weekend
January 22, 2001 | Ice Hockey
Jan. 22, 2001
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Bowling Green (8-12-4, 3-9-4 CCHA) at Miami (11-11-2, 8-7-1 CCHA)
7:35 p.m. Friday-Saturday, Jan. 26-27Series Record: BGSU leads 52-18-5
Last Meetings: at BG 5-1/BG 5-2 on Feb. 11-12, 2000
Friday Radio: WBVI-FM (96.7)
Saturday Radio: WBGU-FM (88.1)
SERIES HISTORY
Bowling Green leads the all-time series versus Miami with a 52-18-5 record. BG is 22-12-2 at Miami's Goggin Arena. The Falcons have a 3-1-1 record in their last five games in Oxford. Buddy Powers has a record of 9-7-3 against the RedHawks, including a 3-5-1 mark in Goggin Arena.
SERIES NOTES
Bowling Green is eighth in league scoring (2.69), while Miami is fifth (2.94). BG is tied-for-sixth in defense (3.00), with the RedHawks third (2.75). The Falcons are fifth in power-play percentage (.192) just behind Miami's .193. BG is sixth in penalty killing (.833) and Miami is ninth (.802).
PREVIEWING MIAMI
The RedHawks were blanked twice at Michigan State (1-0, 5-0) this past weekend.
Miami is led in scoring by junior forward Jason Deskins (13-11--24, 4 ppg), senior forward Pat Leahy (4-17--21), senior forward Gregor Krajnc (10-9--19), and junior blueliner Ken Marsch (0-16--16).
Second-year head coach Enrico Blasi has used sophomore David Burleigh (9-10-2, 2.99, .886) and freshman David Bowen (2-1-0, 2.30, .930) between the pipes. Miami's power play has scored on 24 of 128 opportunities (18.8%), while the penalty killing has stopped 109 of its opponents 133 chances (82.0%).
REVIEWING THE RENSSELAER SERIES
Bowling Green completed its first home sweep of the season (4-0, 4-3), defeating the 13th-ranked Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Engineers (11-8-1). Saturday night's loss for RPI marked the first time the Engineers had been beaten twice in the same weekend this season. RPI entered the weekend averaging over four goals per game, but the Falcons held the Engineers to three goals in 120 minutes.
BG snapped a two-game losing streak Friday night, defeating RPI 4-0 in a non-conference battle. BG peppered Engineer goalie Kevin Kurk with 40 shots on goal, tying their season high, while Falcon goalie Tyler Masters refused to yield any of the 20 shots he faced.
Curtis Valentine opened the scoring at 15:50 of the first period. Valentine broke into the offensive zone and passed the puck to centerman Tyler Knight. Valentine drove to the net, received the return pass from Knight, and slammed it home past Kurk for his fifth of the season.
After a scoreless second period, Greg Day netted his team- leading 16th of the season just 1:13 into the third. Day started the play, shooting from the blueline. Kurk made the initial save, but was unable to handle the rebound. Ryan Murphy recovered the puck and his pass deflected off an RPI defenseman's skate to Day, who shot the puck over a sprawling Kurk.
A mere three minutes later, BG hit the net again. Roger Leonard knocked in his third goal of the season with defenseman Brian Escobedo assisting on the 4-4 marker.
Valentine capped off the game with a power-play goal. Leonard passed the puck from behind the net out to Phil Barski, who took a bad angle shot. Kurk made the save, but Valentine picked up the rebound and slid it past the RPI goalie. The score marked Valentine's first career multiple-goal game, while the "helper" gave Leonard his third multiple-point game in the last eight contests.
The Falcons completed the sweep Saturday with a 4-3 victory.
BG jumped out to a 1-0 lead 11:25 into the first period with a goal from Marc Barlow. Dennis Williams set up Barlow's second of the year, with Tyler Knight also garnering an assist. Ryan Murphy added a power-play tally two minutes later, with Scott Hewson and Grady Moore assisting on Murphy's 11th of the campaign.
Rensselaer winger Andrew McPherson cut BG's lead to 2-1 late in the first.
Roger Leonard scored the lone goal of the second period. Greg Day passed the puck up to a breaking Leonard, who shot while sliding on his stomach.
With Rensselaer down two men, D'Arcy McConvey scored Bowling Green's second power-play goal of the game 14 seconds into the third stanza. McConvey's third marker of the season was unassisted.
Rensselaer scored two goals to pull within one. Midway through the period Ben Barr tallied his second lamp-lighter of the season. RPI pulled goalie Nathan Marsters late in the third in favor of the extra attacker and the strategy paid off, with Matt Murley and Ryan Shields setting up Jim Vickers' sixth goal of the season.
Falcon goalie Tyler Masters raised his record to 8-10-3 by making 16 saves. RPI netminder Nathan Marsters turned aside 22 Falcon shots.
THE LAST TIME
BG swept a home-and-home series (5-1, 5-2) on Feb. 11-12, 2000, versus Miami.
Michael Jones has two goals and one assist to lead BG in Friday's home win, while Shawn Timm made 24 saves.
Adam Edinger had two goals and two assists in Saturday's victory at Miami with Tyler Masters stopping 35 shots.
FALCON TIDBITS
The 4-3 victory on Saturday night was BG's first win of the season in a contest decided by one goal. The Falcons are now 1-6 in one-goal games. BG has won six of its last nine games. The four wins in January are the most in a month this season.
With two power-play goals on Saturday, Bowling Green extended its streak to nine consecutive games with a score on the man-advantage. The Falcon power play unit has successfully converted 14 of their last 57 chances (24.6%).
Over the last three plus games, the Falcon penalty kill has stopped all 23 opponent chances, totaling 30:09 -- 28:02/5-4, 0:07/4-3, 2:00/5-3. Over the past five games, BG has stopped 34 of the last 35 short-handed situations, totaling 47:10 -- 42:22/5-4, 1:02/4-3, 3:46/5-3.
Ryan Murphy extended his point streak to 10 games, equaling his career best, with an assist on Friday and a goal on Saturday. Murphy has 9-4--13 in that span, which began with the Dec. 8th match against Nebraska Omaha.
Tyler Masters' second shutout of the season Friday night was the fourth of his career, tying the school record. Masters has not allowed more than three goals in a game in his last 13 contests.
Masters has the second-best save percentage (.931) of any CCHA goalie over the last four weeks and the third-lowest goals-against average (2.02). Despite playing less than half of the Niagara contest, he still has made the most saves (202).
BG junior center Greg Day has been the hottest offensive player in the CCHA over the last four weeks. He has 13 points on five goals and eight assists, while senior left wing Ryan Murphy is tied-for-third in this span with 11 points on seven goals and four assists.
Only five players have seen action in all 24 contests this year with BG's losing 41 man-games to injuries.
