Falcons Travel West For First Round Of CCHA Playoffs

Feb. 28, 2006

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -

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GAME #37-39 (CCHA Playoffs, First Round)
BGSU vs. Nebraska-Omaha

March 3-5, 2006 (Fri-Sun  Qwest Center  Omaha, Nebraska  8:05 EST)

RECORDS: BGSU 13-21-2, 8-18-2 CCHA // UNO 18-12-6, 12-10-6 CCHA
RADIO: WBGU-FM (88.1) - Andy Evans
SERIES: UNO leads 10-7-2 LAST MEETING: BGSU 4-3  Nov. 5, 2005  Bowling Green, Ohio

The Bowling Green State University hockey team will travel to Omaha, Nebraska for the first round of the CCHA playoffs this weekend. The Falcons, the No. 12 seed in the tournament, will play a best-of-three series with the No. 5 seed Mavericks from March 3-5.

BGSU vs. UNO  March 3  8:05 EST
BGSU vs. UNO  March 4  8:05 EST
BGSU vs. UNO (if necessary)  March 5  TBD

The Series With Nebraska-Omaha
Nebraska-Omaha owns a 10-7-2 series advantage over the Falcons, despite BGSU sweeping the Mavericks earlier this season in Bowling Green, Ohio, by scores of 7-3 and 4-3. Last season the two teams split a weekend series in Omaha (Nov. 12-13) with the Mavericks capturing a 4-2 victory, only to see the Orange and Brown answer back with a 6-4 win the following night. The Falcons are 5-7-1 all-time versus the Mavericks on the road and 2-3-1 at home.

Take Me To Your Leader
Sophomore Alex Foster is currently tied with UNO's Scott Parse for the nation's assist lead with 40. Combined with his 11 goals, Foster is one of only five players in the country to score 50-plus points this season. Foster also ranks ninth in the country with 1.42 points/game and was named CCHA Offensive Player of the Month in November (4g, 14a). He has scored a point in every game but seven this season and has 15 multiple point games. He is currently on a five-game point streak (3-5-8)

Recap of Last Weekend
Miami 2, BGSU 1
BGSU 4, Miami 5
The past weekend the Falcons dropped a pair of one-goal losses to #3 Miami. On Thursday, after spotting the RedHawks a 2-0 advantage, senior Mike Falk scored a power-play goal with 15 minutes remaining in the third, but the Falcons could get no closer. On Saturday night Miami once again took an early 2-0 lead but goals by Don Morrison and Alex Foster knotted the score at two apiece. Jonathan Matsumoto added a power-play goal midway through the third to tie the score at three, but two late third period Miami goals proved to be too much for the Falcons. In just two games BGSU was 4-for-21 (.190) on the power play, while Miami was 3-for-18 (.167) with the man advantage.

20-Plus Points For Falcons Are Rare
Six Falcons have already crossed the 20-point plateau this season, with another two not far behind. Alex Foster (51), Jonathan Matsumoto (46), Brett Pilkington (27), James Unger (25), Mike Falk (25) and Don Morrison (22) each have 20-plus points with Derek Whitmore (19) and Brandon Svendsen (19) just one point away. The last time eight Falcons scored at least 20 points in a season came back in the 1996-97 campaign when Mike Johnson (62), Curtis Fry (61), Brett Punchard (39), Kelly Perrault (37), Dan Price (32), Adam Edinger (29), Dave Faulkner (24) and Peter Ratchuk (21) each surpassed the 20-point plateau.

BGSU And The CCHA Playoffs
 Overall, BGSU is 55-38-2 in 32 years of CCHA Playoffs.
 BGSU is 33-5-0 at home in the CCHA Playoffs and 22-33-2 on the road.
 BGSU has dropped nine straight CCHA playoff games. The last win for the Falcons in the postseason came on March 13, 2001, when BGSU won at Northern Michigan in overtime, 2-1. That win propelled the Falcons to Joe Louis Arena where they lost to #4 Michigan State, 2-1.
Of BGSU's last 15 playoff games, 12 have been decided by two goals or less and nine have been decided by one goal.
 In playoff scoring the Falcons are led by Alex Foster, 1-3-4 (2 games), Mike Falk, 2-1-3 (6 games), Brett Pilkington, 1-2-3 (6 games), Jonathan Matsumoto, 2-0-2 (2 games) and Mike Nesdill, 1-1-2 (2 games).
BGSU has played in 20 best-of-three series in the CCHA Playoffs. Only two of those have not resulted in either the Falcons sweeping or being swept. BGSU won both of the series that went to three games, including at Michigan (March 3-5, 1989) and at home vs. Ferris State (Feb. 27-March 1, 1987).

Falcons On The Road In The First Round
The 1980-81 season marked the first year the CCHA playoffs have included at least eight teams. Since then, the Falcons have hit the road 10 times for the first round of the CCHA playoffs and have walked away with a 10-11-0 record, meaning they are 5-5-0 on the road in the first round of the CCHA playoffs. BGSU has dropped their last three best-of-three CCHA road playoff matches though.

BGSU And Nebraska-Omaha In The Playoffs
Bowling Green and Nebraska-Omaha have met only once since the Mavericks joined the CCHA in 1998-99 with UNO coming away with a 3-1 victory in the 1999-00 season. That year BGSU went on the road to Lake Superior and swept the Lakers 2-1 and 3-2 to advance to the play-in game at Nebraska-Omaha.

Earlier This Season Vs. UNO
After the Falcons opened the season with an 0-4-1 record the Mavericks entered the BGSU Ice Arena on Nov. 4-5 for a weekend series. On Friday (Nov. 4) the Falcons scored a season-best (at the time) seven goals en route to a 7-3 victory. Freshman Brandon Svendsen recorded his first-ever collegiate goal, but the Falcon trio of Mike Falk (2-1-3), Alex Foster (1-4-5) and Jonathan Matsumoto (1-3-4) combined to score 12 points (4-8-12) in the win. The following night BGSU scored two third period goals for a come-from-behind, 4-3 victory. James Unger, Ben Geelan, John Mazzei and Ryan Barnett scored goals for the Falcons in the victory. In the two games BGSU was 2-for-12 on the power-play while UNO was just 1-for-16 with the man advantage. Alex Foster earned CCHA Offensive Player of the Week following the sweep of UNO, posting seven points (1g, 6a). Freshman Jimmy Spratt earned his first two collegiate victories that same weekend, recording a 3.00 gaa and an .897 save percentage.

Morrison In His Last 12 Games
Senior captain Don Morrison is tops among the Falcon defensemen with 22 points (6g, 16a) and ranks 38th in the nation among defensemen with those 22 points. His 22 points, 16 assists and six goals are all career-bests for the captain after establishing 16 points (2g, 14a) last season as a junior. In his last 12 games the senior has 10 points (2g, 8a), including two different three-game point streaks. The Morrison highlights do not stop there. He was named captain of the Falcon squad at the start of the season, and followed that up by scoring the Falcons first goal of the year back on Oct. 14 versus Merrimack. Morrison is the lone captain this season. The last time BGSU had a lone captain was back during the 1987-88 season when now head coach Scott Paluch wore the "C". Morrison will join Paluch (1987-88), George Roll (1984-85), Mike Bartley (1973-74), Chuck Gyles (1972-73), and Glen Shirton (1971-72) as lone season captains.

Mighty Matsumoto
Sophomore Jonathan Matsumoto has 46 points (18g, 28a) this season, which places him eighth in the country in scoring. His 18 goals match his total from last season, while he has doubled his assist mark from 14 (last season) to 28 this year. Matsumoto can also be found in several other national categories including points/game (1.35, 12th), goals (18, T-18th), assists/game (.82, 19th), assists (28, T-9th) and power-play goals (10, 9th). Highlights this season include a hat trick versus #4 Boston College and a four-point night (1g, 3a) in a 7-3 win over UNO. He has scored a point in 29-of-36 games this season and has 14 multiple-point games this season.

Falcons Shooting Out The Record Books
This season the Falcons have taken 1,128 shots for an average of 31.33 attempts per game. The last time BGSU had at least that many shots came back in the 2001-02 season when they fired 1,160 attempts in 40 games. The 31.33 shots per game this season are the highest since the 1995-96 squad averaged 34.90 attempts per contest. Sophomore Alex Foster ranks first in the CCHA with 151 shots, while freshman Brandon Svendsen is fourth with 137.

BGSU's PK Is Killing
In their last eight contests the Falcons penalty kill is 44-of-52 (.846), and if you remove the 3-for-7 effort by Notre Dame last Friday, the Falcon PK is 40-of-45 in those five games for a rate of .889. In that span they stopped LSSU (4-of-5), RIT (7-of-7), UAF (9-of-10), ND (5-of-5) and held #3 Miami in check (15-18).

Power Playing
The Falcons power play, which ranks 27th in the country and sixth in the CCHA, has scored 44 goals on 249 attempts (.177) this season. BGSU is led by Jonathan Matsumoto (10), who ranks ninth in the country, while sophomore Derek Whitmore ranks 21st in the country with his eight power-play goals. Mike Falk (7), James Unger (6), and Alex Foster (4) round out the top five Falcons with the man-advantage.

Falcons Are A Second Day Team
In CCHA action this season the Orange and Brown are a combined 6-5-2 on day two of a weekend conference series, but are only 2-11-0 in the opening contest. In fact the total goals scored/allowed on day two of the series is 43-37, while on day one they have scored only 34 goals and have allowed 66. Note: The Ferris State series was ignored in these numbers due to the large delay between games.

Offense, Offense and More Offense
The Falcon offense ranks 16th in the country and third in the CCHA with 3.33 goals/game. Already this season they have put up six goals versus Boston College and St. Lawrence, seven goals against Nebraska-Omaha, eight tallies versus Northern Michigan and nine lamp lighters in the win over UConn back on Dec. 30. They have also scored five goals three other times this season. In terms of goals scored the Falcons are led by Jonathan Matsumoto (18), Mike Falk (14), Derek Whitmore (13), James Unger (12), Alex Foster (11), and Brandon Svendsen (10).

Falcons Have Played A Tough Schedule
The Falcons finished the regular season having played 19-of-36 games against teams ranked in the top-20 of the USCHO.com poll at the time they faced them. BGSU has already faced #4 Boston College, two games with #2 Ohio State, two games with #9 Miami, two with #20 Northern Michigan, two more games with #16 Ohio State, #3 Miami, #6 Michigan and #19 Lake Superior. They also have one game apiece with #14 Clarkson, #12 St. Lawrence, #19 Ferris State and #12 Colgate.

Whit-More Goals The Falcons Win
Since December 10, sophomore Derek Whitmore has recorded 10 goals in the past 20 games, tied for the team lead at that point. Since the St. Lawrence contest the Falcons are 6-2 in games where Whitmore has scored. He has 13 points (10g, 3a) in that span including multiple goal games versus St. Lawrence and Michigan. He has 18 points (12g, 6a) in his last 25 games, after posting only one point in his first seven games this year.

Defense Wins Games
With the 1-1 tie with Notre Dame, the Falcons improved to 9-1-2 on the year when they surrender two goals or fewer this season. Their lone loss was a 2-1 defeat to Ferris State.

The Incredible Falk
Mike Falk entered the 2005-06 season with a career 24 goals in 89 games. This season alone he has already amassed 14 goals (a career-high), which places him second on the team. The senior recorded eight goals in 27 games last season and 11 goals in 35 games his freshman year. On the year the senior forward has 14 goals and 11 assists in 36 games, setting a new career-best with 25 points

Fast Starts = Falcon Wins
That first goal of the game has been a major factor this season for the BGSU hockey team. In games where the Falcons score first they are 10-6-1, but when they surrender the opening goal they are only 3-15-1. In fact, they are 5-5-1 in the CCHA when they score first, but only 3-13-1 when a fellow CCHA opponent scores first.

Paluch Knows How To Play With A Lead Continuing with the fast start theme, when the Falcons claim a 2-0 advantage this season they are 8-2 on the year. Their wins include UNO (7-3), Northern Michigan (8-4), St. Lawrence (6-4), UMass (3-2), UConn (9-2), Clarkson (4-0), Ohio State (2-0) and Michigan (5-2). Their two defeats came versus Clarkson (6-4) a game they at one point led 3-0 and a 4-3 loss to UAF after claiming a 2-0 advantage just 1:59 into the contest. In games where the Falcons claim that 2-0 advantage they have scored a total of 51 goals (5.10 per game), while surrendering only 27 goals (2.70 per game).

Sophomore Class Having Strong Campaign
The eight-man second year class comprised of Jon Erickson (1-3--4), Alex Foster (11-40--51), Ben Geelan (4-1--5), Michael Hodgson (2-9--11), Jonathan Matsumoto (18-28--46), John Mazzei (6-8--14), Mike Nesdill (2-8--10) and Derek Whitmore (13-6--19) have combined for 57 goals, 103 assists and 160 points this year. This sophomore class has combined for 48% of the team's goals, 49% of the assists and 48% of the team's total points this year.