Falcons Travel To Columbus, Ohio, For 2006 Ohio Hockey Classic

Dec. 27, 2006

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -

GAME #19-20
BGSU @ Ohio Hockey Classic

Dec. 29-30, 2006  Nationwide Arena (Columbus, Ohio), 5:05 p.m./TBA

RECORDS: BGSU 4-13-1, 2-10-0 CCHA // Miami 14-5-1, 10-3-1 CCHA // Ohio State 5-9-4, 5-6-3 CCHA // Minnesota Duluth 4-12-3, 2-10-2 WCHA
RADIO: WBGU-FM (88.1) - Andy Evans--pre-game starts 30 mins. prior.

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The Bowling Green State University hockey team will begin the second half of their season with a pair of games in Columbus, Ohio, for the 2006 Ohio Hockey Classic. The Falcons will square-off with the Miami RedHawks on Friday, Dec. 29 at 5:05 p.m., and will play either Ohio State or Minnesota Duluth the following night. The entire tournament is being played inside Nationwide Arena.
Series With Miami
Bowling Green holds a 57-30-7 all-time series lead over the RedHawks, despite Miami capturing the last six contest, as well as having a 6-2-2 advantage in their last 10 games. Miami posted 4-3 and 3-0 victories over the Falcons back on Oct. 27-28 in Oxford, Ohio. Despite both teams residing in the CCHA, the Dec. 29 contest will be a non-conference game.
Series With Ohio State
The Falcons also own a decisive all-time series lead over the Buckeyes, 88-59-5. Ohio State captured a weekend sweep over the Falcons back on Nov. 17-18 with wins of 9-3 and 4-1 in Bowling Green, Ohio. In their last 10 games OSU is 7-2-1 versus the Falcons. This game would also be non-conference.
Series With Minnesota Duluth
Minnesota Duluth holds a 3-1-0 series lead over the Orange and Brown, with their last wins coming back on Jan. 2-3 with 6-1 and 5-4 victories. The Falcons' lone victory over the Bulldogs came all the way back on March 24, 1984 in a 5-4 (4OT) victory in the National Championship contest in Lake Placid, NY.
What A Difference 19 Days Makes
From Dec. 10-28, a span of 19 days, the Orange and Brown will have played no games, but following their layoff, the next 15 days should be busy. They play two games on Dec.29-30 at the Ohio Hockey Classic. They follow that up with a Jan.5-6 weekend series in Bowling Green, Ohio with Western Michigan and then play on Jan. 9 (Tuesday) at Michigan and hit the road for a pair with UNO, out in Omaha. Nebraska. Overall the Falcons will play seven games in 15 days.
Recap of Alaska Series
BGSU 3, UAF 4
BGSU 6, UAF 4
BGSU snapped a nine-game losing streak on Dec. 9 with a 6-4 win over the Nanooks in Fairbanks, Alaska. On Friday, the Falcons fell behind 4-1 midway through the third, but goals by Todd McIlrath and Jonathan Matsumoto nearly gave the Falcons an incredible comeback. The following night BGSU stormed out to a 4-0 lead in the first 27 minutes of the game. In the win the Falcons got goals from six different players: Brandon Svendsen, Todd McIlrath, Jonathan Matsumoto, Josh Boyd, James Perkin and Tomas Petruska.
The nine goals the Falcons scored were the most for any weekend, and in fact the six goals they scored on Saturday were the most tallies since a 9-2 win over UConn back on Dec. 30, 2005. The weekend alone saw Matsumoto (3g, 2a), Tim Maxwell (0g, 3a), McIlrath (2g, 0a), Tommy Dee (0g, 2a), Brett Molnar (0g, 1a), Russ Sinkewich (0g, 1a) and Boyd (1g, 0a) all post season-highs for points in a weekend.
More Notes From Alaska
 The nine goals the Falcons scored in the two game series with UAF was just one shy of the Falcons 10 goals in the other eight road games.  BGSU went 3-for-15 on the power play, and have now scored a power-play goal in four straight games.  The Falcons dressed 10 newcomers in each game versus UAF.
Freshman Impact
BGSU welcomed 13 new players to the 2006-07 squad and 12 of them have seen playing time throughout the season. Tomas Petruska (5g, 5a), Todd McIlrath (3g, 5a) , Tim Maxwell (0g, 8a), Kai Kantola (2g, 2a), James Perkin (2g, 3a), Kyle Page (0g, 2a), Tommy Dee (0g, 2a), Brett Molnar (0g, 1a) and Josh Boyd (1g, 0a) have all recorded points this season. Brian Moore (6 games) along with goaltenders Eddie Neville (1-6-1, 4.24, .863) and Phil Greer have also dressed. Overall the newcomer class owns 35% (13 of 37) of the team's goals, 44% (30 of 68) of the team's assists and 41% (43 of 105) of the team's total points.
Young Guns
As stated before, 12 newcomers have seen playing time this season (with four playing in every game), but combine that with five sophomores that have been regularly dressed the Falcons are dressing just eight upper-classmen per game (Derek Whitmore, Jonathan Matsumoto, Ben Geelan (who is out with an injury), John Mazzei, Jon Erickson, Mike Nesdill, Jeremy Bronson and Michael Hodgson).
This Season Versus Miami
The Falcons played a pair of games with the RedHawks earlier this season back on Oct. 27-28 in Oxford, Ohio, with Miami skating away with 4-3 and 3-0 victories. In game one the Falcons held a 2-1 lead early in the second period after Derek Whitmore and Tomas Petruska recorded goals, but three unanswered RedHawk goals in the second were to much for the Falcons to overcome. In the loss Eddie Neville had a career-high 41 saves. The following night BGSU held a 34-23 shot advantage, but were outscored 3-0. The difference in the game was Miami going 2-for-4 with the man-advantage, while the Falcons went scoreless on the same amount of attempts.
This Season Versus OSU
The Buckeyes outscored BGSU 13-4 back on mid-November with scores of 9-3 and 4-1, despite OSU holding just a 54-45 shot advantage for the two games combined. Derek Whitmore led the Falcons with two goals and one helper for the weekend.
Hodgson's consecutive game streak Snapped
Junior captain Michael Hodgson sat out the Dec. 2 game with UNO, snapping his consecutive game streak at 89 straight games. Saturday's game was the first game missed in his Falcon career. The new active leader now becomes Brandon Svendsen, who has played in 56 straight games.
Falcons In Non-Conference
This weekend will conclude the Falcons non-conference part of the schedule. The Falcons are 2-3-1 this season out of conference. Derek Whitmore (5g, 1a), Jonathan Matsumoto (3g, 3a) and Michael Hodgson (0g, 4a) are the top point-getters in non-conference action this season. The Miami and Ohio State (if necessary) contests are non-conference games at this weekend's Christmas tournament.
Schedule is Doing BG no Favors
Through the first 18 games this year the Falcons have already squared-off with #1 Boston College, two games with #7 Miami, two with #9 Notre Dame and two with #19 Alaska. BGSU also played one game with Providence and two with Lake Superior, while both of them were also receiving votes in the weekly polls. The Falcons also played Clarkson and St. Lawrence, also teams that can be found in the polls. Overall the Falcons will have played seven games against teams in the top-20 (all on the road) and another five games (3 on the road) against teams that are ready to crack into the polls (12 total) in their first 18 games. This note is when BG played their opponent, not their current status in the polls.
Spratt Since Last February
After a rough start to his Falcon career, Jimmy Spratt has turned his numbers upsidedown. After posting a 5.02 goals-against average and an .833 save percentage in his first 12 games, Spratt now owns a career 4.19 gaa and an .865 save percentage. And in fact since last Feb. 11 Spratt owns a 3.52 gaa and an .890 save percentage in his last 16 starts.
Maxwell's House
Sophomore Tim Maxwell, in his first year with BGSU, has had an impressive start to his Falcon career. The transfer from Maine recorded a helper in each of his first two games, had an assist in a 4-2 win over LSSU and had three assists in the weekend at Alaska. His eight points (0g, 8a) rank him fifth on the team in scoring and first among defenseman. In fact, in games where Maxwell records a point BGSU is 3-2-1 and are 2-0-0 when he has a pair of points.
Whitmore Nearly Matches Last Season's Total
The first half of the 2006-07 season has been a memorable one for junior Derek Whitmore. Through 18 games the Rochester, New York native has 17 points (10g, 7a), and is just three points shy of his 20 point (13g, 7a) effort set all of last season (34 games). In fact, he is currently on pace for 34 points, which would be just three points shy of his first two years combined in the Orange and Brown. Whitmore opened the 06-07 campaign scoring a goal in each of his first five games, including a pair in a 5-5 tie with Alabama-Huntsville, and had a career-high three assists in a 4-3 loss at Alaska.
Matsumoto closes in on 100
In 90 career games, the junior assistant captain has scored 97 points (44g, 53a) and is three points shy of becoming just the 68th Falcon in school history to reach the 100 point plateau. The last Falcon to do so was D'Arcy McConvey, who scored 102 points (31g, 71a) in 153 career games from 2000-04.