Falcons Complete Final Leg Of Road Trip This Weekend

Jan. 16, 2007

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -

GAME #26-27
BGSU vs. Northern Michigan

Jan. 19-20, 2007  Berry Events Center, 7:35 p.m.

RECORDS: BGSU 5-19-1, 3-14-0 CCHA // Northern Michigan 9-14-2, 6-11-1 CCHA
RADIO: WBGU-FM (88.1) - Andy Evans--pre-game starts 30 mins. prior.
TV: None

Game Notes vs. NMU (30 pages)
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The Bowling Green State University hockey team is set to complete the final leg of their road trip this weekend as they travel north to play a pair of Central Collegiate Hockey Association contests in Marquette, Michigan with the Wildcats of Northern Michigan. Following the trip up north the Orange and Brown will play five straight home contests from Jan. 26 through Feb. 9.
Series with Northern Michigan
The Orange and Brown hold a 31-25-6 all-time series advantage over the Wildcats after the two teams split a weekend series in Bowling Green, Ohio, last season. Under coach Paluch the Falcons are 4-5-1 versus NMU, but are 0-4-0 in Marquette, Michigan, since the 2002-03 season and the last Falcon win over the Wildcats on the road came back on March 13, 2001 in the CCHA play-in game (2-1, OT). James Unger (3-3-6, 8 games), Jonathan Matsumoto (0-4-4, 4 games) and Derek Whitmore (1-2-3) are the only three Falcons to have more than one point versus the Wildcats in their Falcon careers. In fact, only seven players (Jeremy Bronson, Ben Geelan, Michael Hodgson, Jonathan Matsumoto, Mike Nesdill, James Unger and Derek Whitmore) have played four or more games versus the Wildcats in their careers.
UNO Weekend Recap
BGSU 1, UNO 2
BGSU 0, UNO 7
The Falcons were out-scored this past weekend, 9-1, while scoring their lone goal on the power play in 14 attempts. UNO went 2-for-13 for the weekend series in Omaha, Nebraska. On Friday the two teams were knotted at one apiece before Scott Parse scored with 55 seconds remaining in the game to escape with a 2-1 win over the Orange and Brown. The following night UNO out-shot the Falcons 44-28 en route to a 7-0 win.
Planes, Trains And Automobiles
The contest with Michigan (Jan. 9) began a five game road trip for the Orange and Brown. Following the UM trip, Bowling Green traveled west to Omaha, Nebraska (706 miles) for a pair with the Mavericks and now head to Marquette, Michigan (511 miles) for two games with the Wildcats. Not to mention, the Falcons have also already traveled to Fairbanks, Alaska (3,750 miles), Providence, Rhode Island (758 miles) and Potsdam, New York (562 miles).
Take Me Home Tonight
With all the travel the Falcons have made this season, they have only been home for five weekends through the first three months of the season and don't return home again until Jan. 26-27 when they face the Nanooks of Alaska. So, from Dec. 3 through Jan. 25 (53 days) the Falcons will have had just two home games (Jan. 5-6) versus Western Michigan.
101 And Counting
Junior Jonathan Matsumoto scored his 100th career point versus Western Michigan back on Jan. 5. He became the 68th Falcon in school history to accomplish this feat and is also just the eighth Falcon in the last 10 years to score at least 100 points in their careers. He added a goal this past weekend versus UNO and now has 101 points in 97 career games. Matsumoto, who averages 1.03 points/game for his career is just one of 45 players in school history to have 100 points and average at least one point per game for their career. See page three for who Matsumoto could be passing in the BGSU record books the next few weeks.
Jack Bauer Is Not the Only Exciting "24"
"24", a hit show on Fox began season six on Jan. 14 (their lead character's name is Jack Bauer), but Bowling Green fans have been seeing an exciting 24 of their own the last few weeks. Freshman Todd McIlrath, who wears number 24, has five points (3g, 2a) in his last nine games (dating back to Dec. 8, in Fairbanks, Alaska). He scored goals in back-to-back games versus the Nanooks, added his third goal at the Ohio Hockey Classic versus Minnesota Duluth, and picked up an assist versus both Western Michigan and Nebraska-Omaha. Also, in that span he leads the team with a plus-1 rating, recording at least a plus-1 in four of those nine games.
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 (6g, 5a), Todd McIlrath (4g, 7a) , Tim Maxwell (0g, 9a), Kai Kantola (3g, 5a), James Perkin (2g, 3a), Kyle Page (0g, 4a), Tommy Dee (1g, 2a), Brett Molnar (0g, 1a) and Josh Boyd (1g, 0a) have all recorded points this season. Brian Moore (7 games) along with goaltenders Eddie Neville (1-6-1, 4.31, .861) and Phil Greer have also dressed. Overall the newcomer class owns 35% (17 of 48) of the team's goals, 43% (36 of 84) of the team's assists and 40% (53 of 133) of the team's total points.
More On The Young Guns
 Newcomers Tomas Petruska (6-5-11), Todd McIlrath (4-6-10), Tim Maxwell (0-9-9) and Kai Kantola (3-5-8) are third through sixth on the team in scoring.
 Overall, five of the Falcons top-10 scorers are newbies.
 Six different newcomers have scored goals and nine have picked up an assist.
 Petruska and James Perkin have 40% of the teams game-winning goals.
 Newcomers have five of the Falcons 15 power-play goals.

The Whole State Of Michigan
Junior Jonathan Matsumoto, has 28 career goals in conference play, but only eight of those goals have come in games with teams from the state of Michigan. Matsumoto has four goals versus Western Michigan, three against Ferris State and one versus LSSU, but has yet to light the lamp in games versus Michigan, Michigan State or this week's opponent, Northern Michigan. On the flip side, the junior has 20 career goals in 42 career games versus CCHA teams outside of Michigan.
James Unger, who is the second highest active Falcon with 27 CCHA career goals has 14 of them versus the state of Michigan (Ferris State, 2, Michigan, 3, Michigan State, 2, Western Michigan, 4 and Northern Michigan, 3).
Power-Play Attempts
The Bowling Green power play is averaging just under seven attempts per contest (6.84) and have 171 attempts this season. Those 171 attempts rank seventh-most in the country and second in the CCHA. BG has allowed 148 power plays by the opposition. Team..........Attempts
Colgate............214
Canisius...........185
Denver.............183
Air Force..........178
Miami..............175
Niagara............174
BGSU...............171

Last Season Versus Northern Michigan
In game one last season with NMU, the Wildcats scored the first five goals of the contest with three in the first and two in the second. Goals by Mike Falk and Alex Foster got the score to 5-2, but one last NMU tally ended the Falcons' comeback. NMU won the game 6-3.
The following night it was BGSU roaring out to an early lead, scoring six goals in the first period. The last time at least five goals were scored in a period by a Falcon squad was Feb. 13, 1999 in a 10-3 win over Alaska Fairbanks. James Unger, Derek Whitmore, Brandon Svendsen, Alex Foster (2) and Mike Falk all scored goals in the opening 20 minutes. Ben Geelan and Bryan Dobek added the final two goals of the game for an 8-4 Falcon win.
For the two game weekend both teams went 2-for-15 on the power play and both had 71 shots.