Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Picked 12th In Preseason Polls
September 25, 2007 | Ice Hockey
Sept. 25, 2007
Farmington Hills, Mich. - The Bowling Green State University hockey team has been picked to finish 12th in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association according to both the preseason coaches' poll and media poll released Tuesday afternoon at the annual CCHA media day held in Detroit, Mich.
The Miami RedHawks were picked as the top dogs by the league coaches, while defending NCAA champion Michigan State, was selected to take the crown according to the media. Defending CCHA regular-season and playoff champions Notre Dame would place third in each poll.
"As far as our teams goes this year, we understand the [preseason] rankings we see ahead of us," said BG coach Scott Paluch. "But as we've talked to our team, it's a situation where in our group we have a lot of guys back, we put ourselves in that situation and it's our responsibility to get ourselves out of it."
The Falcons are coming off a 7-29-2 season that saw them finish 12th in the CCHA with a 5-22-1 league record, but will return 20 lettermen from last season. The group of returnees will include 11 forwards, seven defensemen and two goaltenders, as the orange and brown had to say goodbye to just eight players, while they welcome seven newcomers.
Leading the Falcon offensive charge will be senior forward and tri-captain, Derek Whitmore, who last season had a career-year setting new career-bests in points (29), goals (19) and assists (10). The Rochester, N.Y. native led BG with six power-play goals and notched the game-winning goal last season on two occasions.
Whitmore, will be joined once again on the front lines by fellow senior and tri-captain, John Mazzei (2g, 9a), along with seniors Jon Erickson and Ben Geelan with junior Brandon Svendson (6g, 8a) rounding out the returning upperclassmen.
A talented group of underclassmen then give a lot of promise to the future, as three returning sophomores ranked in the top five on the team in scoring during their freshmen campaigns. That group is led by sophomore forward Tomas Petruska, who tallied 17 points (8g, 9a) on way to becoming one of the top impact freshmen in the CCHA. Sophomore forwards Kai Kantola (5g, 6a) and Todd McIlrath (5g, 10a) also made large contributions in their first seasons, as 59 points of the total 202 scored last season came from last season's freshmen class.
Six new forwards will join the Falcon attack in 2007 led by Jacob Cepis (Cedar Rapids/USHL) who finished third in the United States Hockey League (UHL) in scoring with 72 points (34g, 38a) in 58 games.
On defense, BG will welcome back all, but one blue-liner (Jeremy Bronson) from last season. Senior defensemen Mike Nesdill (1g, 10a) and tri-captain Michael Hodgson (1g, 6a) both return, along with juniors Tim Maxwell (0g, 11a), Kevin Schmidt (3g, 6a) and Russ Sinkewich (0g, 2a).
Sophomores Brian Moore and Kyle Page (0g, 5a) also return to give a once youthful core last season, some much needed game experience. Page, a regular on BG's top blue-line a year ago with Hodgson, was given honorable mention All-CCHA Rookie honors last season.
Adding to that experienced core will be freshman Andrew Krelove (Des Moines/USHL), who tallied 13 points (1g, 12a) in the UHL a season ago
In the net, junior goaltender Jimmy Spratt returns after earning the team's Most Improved Player honors as a sophomore. The Chesterfield, Mich. native played in 31 games last season, starting in net in 30, as he finished with a 3.64 goals-against average and a .886 save percentage. He'll be joined in net this season by sophomore Phil Greer and freshman Nick Eno (Green Mountain/EJHL), who is a seventh-round selection of the Buffalo Sabres in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft.
"We feel real good about our team this season," said Paluch. "We're building on the fact that we had a strong second-half of the season and though it didn't add up to the win total we would've liked, we have a lot of guys returning and have a lot to build on. Our off-season has been outstanding from a team-building and conditioning standpoint and we're ready to go out there and prove these rankings wrong."
Trying to keep the team glued together will be the first-ever all-alumni coaching staff, as this off-season, Paluch now in his sixth-year as BG's coach, announced the hiring of Todd Reirden (1990-94) as an assistant coach. Reirden joins fellow BG alum, Doug Schueller (1997-2001) and new graduate assistant Tyler Masters (1999-2003) to complete the former Falcon-player staff. He is also just the fourth coach (head coaches, assistants and volunteers all included) of current CCHA coaches, to have played in the National Hockey League and one of only two (Michigan coach Red Berenson the other) to have played in over 100 NHL games.
Reirden and the Falcons will start their season on Oct. 12 when they host the University of Windsor in exhibition play. The puck will drop at 7:05 p.m. from the BGSU Ice Arena.
The Complete League Release
For the second straight year, the coaches and media disagree over who should hold down the No. 1 position in the CCHA's annual preseason polls. The conference's 12 head coaches ranked Miami first while the media voted for defending NCAA champion Michigan State. Defending regular-season and playoff champion Notre Dame placed third in each category.
The RedHawks edged out the Spartans for top honors in the coaches' poll despite finishing with one fewer first-place vote (five) compared to Michigan State (6). The Irish are the only other team picked by a coach to finish on top. For the second consecutive year, the Spartans garnered the most first-place votes in both rankings as they also were also the top choice of 25 media members. Notre Dame attracted 13 first-place votes in media balloting with Michigan rounding out selections with the remaining four.
The RedHawks, guided by three-time CCHA Coach-of-the-Year Enrico Blasi, have 20 players returning, including both starting goaltenders, all eight defensemen who suited up last season for the team with the third-best defensive numbers in the conference, and impact senior forwards Ryan Jones and Nathan Davis. Jones, a 2004 draft pick of the Minnesota Wild, is the league's top returning goal scorer after having notched 18 in conference action and 29 in overall games last season. Davis, selected by Chicago in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft, was one of just nine players in the nation in 2006-07 to reach the 50-point plateau (21-29-50).
The Spartans also bring back 20 players from a squad that captured the school's third national championship, and the eighth won by a CCHA member, on April 7 in St. Louis. Michigan State is backstopped by junior goaltender Jeff Lerg, who is 5-1-0 with a 1.50 goals-against average and .949 save percentage in NCAA Tournament play, and led offensively by the potent all-junior combination of leading scorer Tim Kennedy (18-25-33), Frozen Four winning goal-scorer Justin Abdelkader and Pittsburgh draft pick Tim Crowder.
The Irish have 16 lettermen back, including their top five returning scorers led by Eric Condra (14-34-48) and 2007 All- Rookie Team picks Ryan Thang (20-21-41) and Kevin Deeth (17-22-39). On defense, another All-Rookie Team member, Kyle Lawson, will be joined by freshman Ian Cole, the first, first-round NHL draft choice in school history, who went 18th overall to St. Louis.
A total of 63 members of the media ranked the 12 CCHA teams in projected order of finish for the regular season. Points were awarded on a 12-11-10-9, etc., basis. League coaches ranked the CCHA teams, excluding their own school, in the order they predicted the regular season would end. Points in the coaches' poll were tallied on a 11-10-9, etc., basis.
Media Poll 1. Michigan State (25) 701 2. Miami (21) 667 3. Notre Dame (13) 656 4. Michigan (4) 596 5. Ohio State 414 6. Nebraska-Omaha 412 7. Western Michigan 352 8. Ferris State 279 9. Lake Superior State 270 10. Northern Michigan 248 11. Alaska 212 12. Bowling Green 108Coaches Poll 1. Miami (5) 114 2. Michigan State (6) 113 3. Notre Dame (1) 105 4. Michigan 92 5. Ohio State 77 6. Nebraska-Omaha 68 7. Lake Superior 52 8. Northern Michigan 48 9. Ferris State 44 10. Western Michigan 41 11. Alaska 25 12. Bowling Green 13
