Home Sweet Home: Falcons Host Nanooks This Weekend

Jan. 23, 2007

BOWLING GREEN, OHIO -

GAME #28-29
BGSU vs. Alaska

Jan. 26-27, 2007  BGSU Ice Arena, 7:05 p.m.

RECORDS: BGSU 5-21-1, 3-16-0 CCHA // Alaska 7-13-4, 5-10-3 CCHA
RADIO: WBGU-FM (88.1) - Andy Evans--pre-game starts 30 mins. prior.
TV: BCSN (Greg Franky and Buddy Powers)

Game Notes vs. Alaska (31 pages)
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After spending the past five games on the road, and having only two home games since December 3, the Bowling Green State University hockey team returns home this weekend as they play host to the Alaska Nanooks this Friday and Saturday (Jan. 26-27). Both games start at 7:05, as the Falcons begin a five-game home swing.
Series with Alaska
The two teams are tied 17-17-5 all-time in the career series, with the two teams splitting a weekend back in December. The Nanooks won game one, 4-3, with the Falcons bouncing back with a 6-4 win the following night. BGSU head coach Scott Paluch is 4-7-1 all-time versus the Nanooks. Jonathan Matsumoto (7-5-12, 8 games), Michael Hodgson (1-4-5, 6 games), Derek Whitmore (3-3-6, 7 games) and Jimmy Spratt (1-2-0, 3.37, .913) are the top Falcons versus the Nanooks.
NMU Weekend Recap
BGSU 1, NMU 4
BGSU 1, NMU 4
Tomas Petruska scored the Falcons lone goal of the night. On Saturday, the Wildcats scored two goals in the first 5:42, while adding one goal midway through the second to take a 3-0 lead. BGSU's Derek Whitmore tipped a Tomas Petruska shot to get the Falcons to within 3-1, but the Wildcats added an empty net goal at 18:50 of the third for the 4-1 final.
Penalty Kill Climbing
The BGSU penalty kill currently sits at 80.2% (130-162), but in their last five games the PK is 28-33 for an 84.8% clip. While allowing just five power-play goals in the last five games, they have held their opponent to one of fewer PP goals in four of those five contests. Prior to this five game stretch the PK was 102-129 (79.1%).
Falcons Feast On UAF
Jonathan Matsumoto (7-5-12, 8 games), Derek Whitmore (3-3-6, 7 games), Michael Hodgson (1-4-5, 6 games), Mike Nesdill (1-3-4, 6 games), Kevin Schmidt (0-2-2, 4 games) and Russ Sinkewich (0-1-1, 4 games) have all had their most success versus the Nanooks, compared to any other team in the CCHA. Not to mention Josh Boyd (1-0-1), Tommy Dee (2-0-2), Tim Maxwell (0-3-3), Todd McIlrath (2-0-2), Brett Molnar (0-1-1), James Perkin (1-1-2) and Tomas Petruska (1-1-2), all newcomers to CCHA play, have also had their most success versus UAF. Overall, 12 Falcons have had their most success while facing the Nanooks.
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 just recently completed a trip 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 four months of the season. From Dec. 3 through Jan. 25 (53 days) the Falcons will have had just two home games (Jan. 5-6) versus Western Michigan.
103 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 versus UNO and added two assists versus NMU last weekend for 103 career points to date. Matsumoto, who averages 1.04 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.
As Matsumoto Goes, So Do The Falcons
Jonathan Matsumoto has recorded multiple point games seven times this season, and in those seven games the Falcons are 5-2-0. In games where the junior records a goal the Orange and Brown are 4-3-1.
Spratt Versus The Nanooks
For his career, sophomore Jimmy Spratt owns a 3.37 gaa and a .913 save percentage, while posting a 1-2-0 career record versus the Alaska Nanooks. The 3.37 gaa is his third-best average versus a CCHA opponent (has a 2.00 gaa versus Michigan State and a 2.67 gaa versus Western Michigan), while the .913 save percentage trails only the .917 career save percentage versus MSU.
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 (7g, 6a), 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 (1-7-1, 4.18, .860) and Phil Greer have also dressed. Overall the newcomer class owns 37% (18 of 49) of the team's goals, 42% (37 of 88) of the team's assists and 40% (55 of 139) of the team's total points.
More On The Young Guns
 Newcomers Tomas Petruska (7-6-13), Todd McIlrath (4-7-11), 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 16 power-play goals.

Earlier This Year Versus Alaska
BGSU and UAF completed the first half of their season in Fairbanks, Alaska back on Dec. 8-9 with the two teams splitting the weekend 1-1. In game one Jonathan Matsumoto scored a PP goal to give the Falcons a 1-0 lead, but UAF scored four unanswered goals to take a commanding lead. Goals by Todd McIlrath and another by Matsumoto got the score to within 4-3 with six minutes remaining, but the Falcons could get no closer.
The following night the Falcons scored four goals in the first 27 minutes of action with the help of Brandon Svendsen, McIlrath and Matsumoto and Josh Boyd. UAF got the next two tallies to get it to within 4-2, but James Perkin scored on a breakaway to spot the Falcons a 5-2 lead. Curtis Fraser and Kyle Greentree scored in the third to make it 5-4, but an empty-net goal by Tomas Petruska with 41 seconds remaining gave the Falcons a 6-4 win, snapping a nine game losing streak.