Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Travel East To Battle BC and Providence
October 14, 2008 | Ice Hockey
Oct. 14, 2008
BOWLING GREEN, OHIO -
Game #3
Bowling Green (1-0-1, 0-0-0 CCHA) vs. #1 Boston College (1-0-0)
Oct. 17, 2008 • Chestnut Hill, Mass. (Kelley Rink) • 7:05
Game #4
Bowling Green (1-0-1, 0-0-0 CCHA) vs. Providence College (0-0-0)
Oct. 18, 2008 • Providence, R.I. (Schneider Arena) • 7:06
THIS WEEK
The Bowling Green State University hockey team takes to the road for the first time in the 2008-09 season as they battle Boston College, the defending national champions, at 7:05 p.m. on Friday then the Falcons take on Providence College Saturday night with the puck dropped at 7:06 p.m.
RADIO
All games this season can be heard on WBGU 88.1 FM. Falcon play-by-play announcer, Bob Mills will provide the play-by-play, while Everett Fitzhugh is the color commentator. A pregame show will air 30 minutes prior to the opening face-off. The broadcast can be heard globally on both www.bgsufalcons.com and www.bgrso.org.
LIVE STREAMING
Video of the Bowling Green game with Boston College will be available through a live streaming service available on the Eagles web site (www.bceagles.cstv.com). To access the service, which costs $7.95, go the schedule page in hockey section of BC's athletic web site and click on the "watch" icon on the right hand side of the page.
LIVE STATS
Live stats for all BGSU home games are available on the BGSU web site (www.bgsufalcons.com), via gametracker. The stats can be accessed from the schedule page in the hockey section of the web site by clicking on the "watch" icon on the right hand side of the page.
TELEVISION
The Bowling Green contest at Providence will be broadcast locally by Cox Sports.
TEACHER vs. PUPIL
Certainly one of the storylines for the upcoming weekend series is the meeting of the head coaches - BG's Scott Paluch and Boston College head coach Jerry York. Paluch played for York at Bowling Green for four seasons (1984-85 to 1987-88). After spending two seasons playing professionally, Paluch returned to his alma mater to team up with York again - this time on the Falcon bench. He spent four years with York before joining BG's winningest hockey coach and a BGSU Athletic Hall of Fame inductee in 2003 at Boston College when York took the top post at his alma mater in 1994. Paluch then spent eight more seasons teaming up with York guiding the Eagles to four successive Frozen Fours (1997-01) and the 2001 national championship. On April 15, 2002, Paluch became the head coach at Bowling Green after spending 16 of his previous 18 seasons with York either as a player or coach. Their teams have met three previous times with BC taking home a victory in each instance.
SVENDSEN, KANTOLA START SEASON WITH A BANG
Senior forward Brandon Svendsen and junior forward Kai Kantola both started their 2008-09 seasons in a big way recording a pair of goals each in BG's 4-2 win over RIT. Svendsen's multiple-goal effort was the first of his career (111 games) and is half of his goal total in 37 games last season. Svendsen tallied the first Falcon goal of the season in the second period then added an empty-net score to wrap up the BG victory. Kantola had the other two goals for the Falcons in the win over RIT, his second multiple-goal contest. Kantola, who had two goals against Wayne State last season, came into this season with 11 career markers, six of those last season.
FALCONS HAVE BIG WEEKEND SHOOTING THE PUCK
Bowling Green was probably not rewarded with goals as one might think knowing the Falcons put 81 shots (50 in the tie with Niagara) on goal in the opening two games. They did put seven pucks in the back of the net in what was a very productive offensive weekend. BG had many excellent scoring opportunities turned away by Niagara goalie Juliano Pagliero, who had 47 stops in the tie. On the other hand, the Falcons were just three-of-15 with the man-advantage, but did create 21 of their shots for the weekend on the power-play.
FIRST PERIOD BLUES
All five goals BG yielded last week came in the first period, forcing the Falcons to play from behind almost from the opening whistle. RIT scored just 3:53 into the contest and added a second tally just over eight minutes later to take a 2-0 lead to the first period intermission. In the Niagara contest, the Purple Eagles got a goal just 3:06 into the game and added two more tallies, 50 seconds apart, later in the period to put BG down, 3-1, after one period. Both opening goals for the opposition last weekend came on the power play. BG bounced back in both games earning three of the four points on the weekend, but playing from behind is a situation head coach Scott Paluch does not want his team to be in on a consistent basis.
PUTTING UP ZEROS
Despite their problems in the first period of the opening two games, the Falcons put up a strong defensive performance, behind the play of senior goaltender Jimmy Spratt and the defensive corp in front of him, over the remaining periods in each contest over the weekend. BG held RIT off the board for the last 47:41 of that contest and Saturday night, against Niagara, the Falcons held the Purple Eagles without a goal for the final 50:34, including the overtime period.
PLAYING THE BEST
The contest against Niagara last weekend was the first of 14 this season the Falcons will play against teams who qualified for the NCAA Tournament last season. In addition to the game against Boston College on Friday, the Falcons have 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 has a two-game home weekend series against Minnesota State (Nov. 28-29) and Clarkson (Dec. 19-20).
FALCON QUICK HITS
The Falcons had nine different players score a point in the exhibition win over Wilfred Laurier and seven differnt players in each of the season opening games last weekend...BG returns 21 letterwinners from a year ago and seven of their top 10 scorers...the Falcons were 1-11 against ranked teams one year ago, but their lone win did come against Miami, which was ranked #1 in the country at the time...BG was 9-9 on the road last season, the fifth-best win total in the CCHA, and the eighth-best total in the nation...the last time BG had 50 or more shots against a non-league opponent, as they did in the Niagara contest last week, was on Oct. 28, 1995 vs. Rensselaer when they had 59 shots on goal in a 6-4 win at the Ice Arena.
BOSTON COLLEGE NOTES
The Eagles started the 2008-09 season by lifting their 2008 National Championship banner to the ceiling and then defeating #14 Wisconsin by a 5-4 count last Friday...the two teams were tied after each of the first two periods before a goal from freshman Cam Atkinson with 6:30 remaining proved to be the winner...BC had a 37-32 edge in shots and was 2-for-8 on the power play...BC has 15 returning letterwinners from the title team last season...BC was fourth in the Hockey East regular season last year with an 11-9-7 record before winning their last nine contests of the season in their run to the national title...sophomore forward Brian Gibbons had three points (2-1) in the season-opening win...he was sixth on the team with 35 points last season...senior forward Brock Bradford also had three points (1-2) in the opener...sophomore goaltender John Muse, who was 25-11-8 last season with a 2.20 goals-against and a .921 save percentage, got the win in net for the Eagles...former BGSU head coach Jerry York is the Eagle leader and his 804 wins are second all-time and first among active coaches...York's 29 wins in NCAA Tournament play, including five at BGSU, are the most ever...York has a career mark of 804-515-84 and a 337-180-50 mark at BC...York won 342 games in 15 seasons while at BGSU...BC brings a 10-game winning streak into the game against the Falcons going back to last season.
PROVIDENCE COLLEGE NOTES
The Friars open their season Friday against Northeastern before taking on the Falcons...PC has 20 returning letterwinners including senior forward Pierce Norton who was third on the team last season with 24 points and second with 14 goals...senior defenseman Matt Taormina was second on the team a year ago with 27 points, leading the team with 18 assists...he was a second-team All-Hockey East selection...both of PC's returning goaltenders, senior Chris Mannix and junior Ryan Simpson, played in only four games last season...PC was fifth in Hockey East last season with an 11-11-5 mark...PC lost their last four games of the 2007-08 season...head coach Tim Army, a Hobey Baker finalist as a senior at Providence College when he scored 74 points, is in his fourth season at PC and has a 41-56-11 record...Providence was ranked as high as 11th in the national polls last season.
LAST WEEK
The Falcons earned three of four points on the weekend opening the season with a 4-2 win over RIT before having to settle for a 3-3 overtime deadlock against Niagara Saturday night. The Falcons, after falling behind 2-0 after one period of the RIT game, scored four unanswered goals for the victory. Senior forward Brandon Svendsen and junior forward Kai Kantola each had a pair of markers in the game as the Falcons had a slim, 31-28, edge in shots. Senior goaltender Jimmy Spratt had 27 saves. In the tie with Niagara, sophomore forward David Solway scored with 4:04 left in regulation to send the game to an extra period. Like opening night, the Falcons were down after one period, this time by a 3-1 score, but fought their way back to earn a point, despite outshooting the Purple Eagles by a 50-18 count. Seven different players scored points for BG with junior forward James Perkin and junior forward Josh Boyd notching the other goals. Spratt had 15 saves in goal.
NEXT WEEK
The Falcons open Central Collegiate Hockey Association play with a weekend series in Fairbanks, Alaska against the Nanooks. Both the Friday and Saturday night games begin at 11:05 (eastern time).
