Falcon Icers Entertain Wilfrid Laurier Saturday In Noon Exhibition

Oct. 1, 2008

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University hockey team will play host to Wilfrid Laurier University this Saturday (Oct. 4) in its lone exhibition contest of the preseason before it begins its 2008-09 season campaign next weekend. Opening faceoff is scheduled for 12 p.m. Following their exhibition game with the Golden Hawks, the Falcons will open their regular-season with a pair of games at the BGSU Ice Arena against RIT (Oct. 10) and Niagara (Oct. 11).

Complete Release in PDF Format (17 Pages)

Exhibition
Wilfrid Laurier at Bowling Green

Oct. 4, 2008  BGSU Ice Arena, 12 p.m.

RECORDS: BGSU 0-0-0 // WLU 0-0-0
RADIO:WBGU (88.1): Bob Mills (Play-by-Play)

RADIO BROADCAST
Saturday afternoon's action from the BGSU Ice Arena can be heard on WBGU 88.1 FM. New Falcon play-by-play announcer, Bob Mills and will be providing all the play-by-play. A pregame show will be airing 30 minutes prior to the opening face-off. The broadcast can be heard locally on WBGU 88.1 FM and globally on both www.bgsufalcons.com and www.bgrso.org.
LIVE STATS
Live stats for Saturday's game will be available at www.bgsufalcons.com via gametracker, which can be found on the team's schedule page.
FALCON QUICK HITS
 BG has won its' last three exhibition games by a combined score of 26-3, as they beat Windsor 7-1, 7-1 and 12-1 in those three games.
 BG's 2008-09 roster will feature players from nine different states, as 18 of the Falcons' 27 players are American-born players. Just five years ago, the 2003-04 Falcon roster featured 14 Canadian-born players. The 2000-09 Falcons hail from Indiana, Massachuesetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin.
 Under Scott Paluch, the Falcons are 11-6-0 in their first two weekends of the season, which includes the exhibition contest and the opening weekend. Last season, BG went 2-1-0, as they collected wins over Windsor (12-1) and at RIT (5-3).
 BG was 13-6-0 last season when tallying 30 or more shots on net and just 5-13-0 when having less than 30 shots.
 When allowing three goals or less in 2007-08, BG was 17-5-0, but they were just 1-14-0 when allowing four or more goals.
 BG was 13-1-0 when holding a lead after the first period in 2007-08 and 13-2-0 when leading after two periods. The Falcons were then 4-10-0 when trailing after one and 1-8-0 when tied after one.
 The Falcons were 12-8-0 in 2007-08 when scoring a power play goal and 6-11-0 when they didn't score on the man-advantage, while 11-11-0 when allowing at least one power play goal and 7-8-0 when they didn't allow one.
 BG returns 11 of its 18 game-winning goals from last season, including Jacob Cepis' three, which ranked second on the team behind Derek Whitmore's five.
SCOUTING THE FALCONS
 BG returns 21 letterwinners, tied for the most in the CCHA with Michigan, from a team in 2007-08 that won 18 games - the most in the last 13 years and most since the 1995-96 season.
 In total, 12 forwards return up front, while six defensemen return on the blue line and three goalies return in net.
 Despite the loss of scoring leader Derek Whitmore, who finished his career last year as one of the Falcons' 20 best all-time goal scorers, the Falcons will return seven of their top-10 pointgetters from last season and 12 of their top-15. Leading the charge will be 2007-08 CCHA All-Rookie Team member, Jacob Cepis, who totaled 31 points. He will be joined by junior James Perkin, who had a career-high 25 points this past season and senior defensemen Kevin Schmidt, who also had a career-best 25 points.
 Up front, four returning Falcon upperclassmen (Tommy Dee, Kai Kantola, Todd McIlrath and James Perkin set new career-bests in points last season.
 Overall, eight total upperclassmen set or tied career-bests in points last season.
 BG finished 2007-08 17-8 on the year against non-ranked teams, but just 1-11 against ranked opponents with their lone win coming at home against top-ranked Miami.
 In net, sophomore goaltender Nick Eno and senior goaltender Jimmy Spratt combined for a goals-against average of 3.06 last season and a save percentage of .891.
 BG finished the regular-season with 32 goals on the power play last season, as they went 32-of-194 with the man-advantage. However, 24 of those extra-man goals came in the first 17 games, as the Falcons were 24-of-101 (23.8%) in the first half and just 8-of-93 in the second (8.6%).
 Overall, the Falcons finished the season 36-of-220 (16.4%) on the power play and 161-of-195 on the penalty-kill (82.6%).
A LOOK AT THE GOLDEN HAWKS
 The Golden Hawks are coached by third-year head coach Kelly Nobes. They are assisted by Dave Williams (Dennis Williams' brother) and Trevor Fraser.
 The Golden Hawks enter Saturday 3-0 in exhibition play, posting wins over Guelph (6-0), McGill (5-4) and Ottawa (6-1).
 WLU returns 15 players from a year ago, including leading scorers and brothers Craig and Mark Voakes. The two combined for 84 total points a season ago, tying for the team-lead with 42 points. That point total was good enough for ninth in the country.
 Craig Voakes, an Ontario University Athletes All-Rookie team selection a season ago and the OUA West Rookie of the Year, had three hat-tricks last season for the Golden Hawks. He led the nation with 23 goals in 26 games.
 Mark Voakes, the brother of Craig, is a former Falcon hockey and baseball player. The older Voakes came to BGSU in 2003-04 during coach Scott Paluch's second season. Voakes went scorless in 14 games for the Falcons in 2003-04, recording six shots on net. Voakes also played in two baseball games for BG that spring ... going 0-for-3 at the plate in three at bats.
 Wilfrid Laurier is located in Waterloo, Ontario and has an enrollment of over 11,000 students.
GOLDEN HAWKS HEAD COACH
(Courtesy of Wilfred Laurier) Kelly Nobes is from West Hill, Ontario, and has a B. Ed. (Physical Education) and M.A. (Exercise Physiology) from McGill University. While at McGill, he played 4 seasons, finishing 9th overall in history scoring, with 181 points in 131 games. He also served as Assistant Coach to the Redmen under current head coach Martin Raymond. Before coming to Laurier, Coach Nobes was at RMC for 5 seasons, where he made the OUA playoffs all 5 times. He broke the school record for points in a season, twice, in 2001-02 and 2004-05. In Nobes' first season at Laurier the team finished 1st in the OUA and set a school record for wins and points with a 22-5-1 regular season record. He led the team to a 3rd place finish at the 2007 University Cup in Moncton, NB.
WILFRID LAURIER SERIES
You have to go back nearly 33 years to find the last time the Falcons and Golden Hawks met, back to December of 1975, when the two teams played a two-game series at the BGSU Ice Arena. In the teams' first-ever meeting on Dec. 5th, the Golden Hawks would earn a 3-2 victory over the then 6-1 Falcons, before BG bounced back with a convincing 14-1 win on the 6th.
TEAM OF THE DECADE
The Falcons' 18 wins a year ago are the most by any Bowling Green hockey team in the last decade and the most any Falcon team has celebrated in 13 years. BG also advanced to the second round of the CCHA playoffs last season for the first time since 2001, as they won their first home playoff series since
WHAT WAS ACCOMPLISHED
The 2007-08 season will go done as one to remember for the Falcons as the season featured many accomplishments for the both the team and individual players. Below is look at some of the more major accomplishments from the season.
TEAM
 Most wins in the last decade with 18 and the most since the 1995-96 season when they went 26-14-1.
 First Falcon team to reach the second round of the playoffs since the Falcon squad of 2000-01 that made it to the CCHA semifinals.
 First Falcon team to beat the nation's top-ranked team since 1997.
 First Falcon team to win nine road games since the 1995-96 team.
 First BG team to feature two All-Rookie Team selections (Jacob Cepis and Nick Eno) since the 1993-94 team and just the second squad to do so in the 20 years they've selected the team.
 First Falcon team to feature two 20-point rookie scorers since 1996.
INDIVIDUALLY
 Senior tri-captain Derek Whitmore scored his 100th career point last season as he finished his BG career with 102 career points on 70 career goals and 32 career helpers.
 Derek Whitmore's 70 career goals placed him 19th on BGSU's all-time career goal-scoring list.
 Derek Whitmore's 27 goals last year are the most by a Falcon in a single-season since Mike Johnson scored 30 in 1996-97.
 Derek Whitmore was named CCHA Offensive Player of the week twice and James Perkin was named it once.
 Freshman forward Jacob Cepis was named CCHA Rookie of the Week twice and Dan Sexton was once.
 Junior defenseman Kevin Schmidt finished a single point short of tying Grady Moore for the most points by a Falcon rearguard in the last 10 seasons with his 25 points.
 Freshman forward Jacob Cepis became the first Falcon forward since Adam Edinger to earn All-Rookie honors in the CCHA.
 Freshman goaltender Nick Eno became the first Falcon goaltender since Bob Petrie to be named to the CCHA All-Rookie Team.
 Sophmore defenseman Kyle Page was named to the league's Scholar-Athlete team for the first time in his career.
 Nine different upperclassmen set new career-bests in points last season.
25 YEARS OF CELEBRATING A CHAMPIONSHIP
A special logo, located at the bottom of page three, was created this year to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the 1984 National Championship. The 2008-09 season marks 25 seasons since that magical 1983-84 season where BG went 34-8-2 and 22-4-2 in the CCHA on way to the school's first-ever and only National Championship. The logo will appear all season on the note packet and is featured in the 2008-09 hockey media guide.
TOUGH GO
It'll be a tough road for the Falcons in 2008-09, as the schedule features 14 games against that qualified for the 2008 NCAA Tournament and 19 total games against teams that sported winning records just a season ago. Included in those games will be a road contest at defending NCAA National Champion Boston College (Oct. 17) and two home-and-home weekends against National Runner-Up Notre Dame (Nov. 21-22; Dec 12-13). Other notable dates include a Jan. 16-17 home-and-home series with defending Central Collegiate Hockey Association Champion Michigan and a Feb. 20 and 21st home-and-home series with 2006-07 National Champion Michigan State. In non-conference action, BG will also host Niagara (Oct. 11) in a single game and have two home weekend series against Minnesota State (Nov. 28-29) and Clarkson (Dec. 19-20).
FALCON ILLINI
Coach Scott Paluch was honored by his home state in December of 2007 when he was inducted into the Illinois Hockey Hall of Fame. Paluch, who played for BGSU from 1984-88, finished his career as the Falcons' all-time leading scorer among defensemen with 49-121-169. Those 49 goals remain the standard for BGSU rearguards. The Chicago native signed a pro contract with the St. Louis Blues following his collegiate career.
ENO(UGH) ALREADY Nick Eno, who sported a 12-10-0 record with a 2.79 goals-against average and .905 save percentage, became the third Falcon netminder to earn CCHA All-Rookie Team status last season. He joined Bob Petrie (1994) and Aaron Elllis (1993) in earning the honor. The Howell, Mich. native's goal-against mark ranks as the seventh-best single-season mark in school history, while his save percentage is tied for seventh-best.
BIG-TIME ROOKIE SEASON FROM SMALL-TIME ROOKIE GUY Bowling Green's impact freshmen were a big reason for their success last season and none of these freshmen may have been bigger than Jacob Cepis, despite his 5-foot-8-inch frame . The Parma, Ohio native tallied 15 goals and 16 assists in his rookie campaign as he currently ranks tied for 33rd on the all-time Falcon scoring list for freshmen. He finished just a point shy of Jonathan Matsumoto's freshman mark of 32 points in 2004-05, which is the most by a Falcon in the last 10 years and is tied for 28th on the all-time BGSU freshmen list. He was also just two points away from being the Falcons' top rookie scorer in the past 13 years and three points away from being the top rookie scorer since Brett Harkins scored 54 points as a freshman during the 1989-90 season.
THE OTHER SEXTON TWIN
Though he is not grinding handrails and doing inverted 180's like his pro-snowboarding twin brother Joey, sophomore forward Dan Sexton displayed his own jaw-dropping moves on the ice last season. The Apple Valley, Minn. native recorded a line of 7-14-21, as he teamed up with Jacob Cepis to form only the sixth duo of BGSU freshmen since 1984 to each be 20-point scorers.
BG WARRIORS BECOME KINGS OF THE ROAD
The Falcons posted a 9-9-0 regular-season road record last season, which was tied for the fifth-best road win total in the CCHA and the eighth-best in the nation. The nine road wins are the most in Scott Paluch's seven seasons, besting the eight won by the 2004-05 squad. The team mark of 13 regular-season road wins was set in 1986-87 when Paluch was a junior defenseman.