Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Make Long Trip To Alaska To Open CCHA Play
October 21, 2008 | Ice Hockey
Oct. 21, 2008
BOWLING GREEN, OH -
THIS WEEK
The Bowling Green State University hockey team continues its road swing by opening up Central Collegiate Hockey Association play against Alaska. The Falcons and Nanooks will meet on Friday and Saturday nights at the Carlson Center in Fairbanks, Alaska with both games starting at 11:05 (eastern time).
RADIO
All games this season can be heard on WBGU 88.1 FM. 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.
TELEVISION
The Bowling Green State University hockey team will have several games televised this season. The Falcons are a part of five games on the CCHA package, which is produced by Comcast in Detroit, Mich. Those five games will also be shown live on the NHL Network in Canada. The five games included in that package are the Dec. 13 contest at Notre Dame, the Jan. 17 contest at home against Michigan, the Jan. 24 game at home against Lake Superior, the Feb. 14 game at home with Ferris State and the Feb. 28 battle with Western Michigan in Kalamazoo. The Feb. 21 game at home with Michigan State will be broadcast by Fox Sports Net. In addition, all other home games not included in the CCHA or FSN packages will be carried locally by BCSN, except the Nebraska-Omaha series.
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.
OFFENSIVELY CONSISTENT
The Falcons have been very consistent in the early part of this season putting pucks in the back of the net. Through the first four games, BGSU has scored in 11 of the 12 periods during regulation time. Coming into the games this weekend, the Falcons have scored in 11 consecutive periods in regulation. The only period this season they failed to put something on the board was the opening stanza of the season against RIT. Bowling Green has scored one goal in each of the last 10 periods and they started the streak with a three-goal period in the second stanza of the RIT game. By comparison, Bowing Green's opposition has scored in six of the 12 periods.
ZEROS IN THE SECOND AND THIRD
Boston College's goal in the third period of the game last weekend ended a string of five consecutive second and third periods (a total of 100:17 minutes of play) in which the Falcons had not allowed a goal. BG did not allow a goal in the second or third periods of the first two games of the season and they blanked BC in the second period of that contest. Providence did score in the second and third periods of the game last Saturday. The Falcons have allowed just three goals in both the second and third periods of games this season.
A HEALTHY EDGE IN SHOTS
Through the first four games, the Falcons are averaging just over 11 more shots on goal per game than their opponents. BGSU has 141 shots (35.2 average) in the first four games while their opponents have 95 (23.8 average). Of the first 12 periods in regulation time this season, BG has recorded 10 or more shots in nine of those periods. By comparison, their opposition as reached double digits in shots just twice. Bowling Green, which has had more shots than their opponent in all four games, has held the opposition to six shots or less in five periods this season. BG had a string of seven successive periods in which they had held the opposition to nine or fewer shots ended when Providence had 13 shots in the first period of that contest over the weekend. Providence's 31 shots was the most this season vs. Bowling Green. The Falcons limited then top-ranked Boston College to only 18 shots in their game last weekend with no period in that game of more than seven shots.
PLAYING THE BEST
The contest against Boston College last weekend was the second of 14 this season the Falcons will play against teams who qualified for the NCAA Tournament last season. The Falcons have two home-and-home weekends against national runner-up Notre Dame (Nov. 21-22; Dec 12-13), a Jan. 16-17 home-and-home series with defending Central Collegiate Hockey Association champion Michigan and a Feb. 20 and 21 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).
PLAYING WITH THE LEAD
Despite the fact the Falcons have scored in 11 of 12 periods this season and enjoy a healthy edge in shots on goal, BG has held the lead for just 23:15 of the 245 possible minutes this season. The Falcons enjoyed the largest chunk of that time in the Providence game when they led for 18:51 of that contest. The biggest reason for the lack of time that they have been able to play with the lead is the fact BG had trailed by two goals at the end of the first period in each of the first three games of the season. The Falcons scored the only goal of the first period in the Providence game to put an end to that streak.
PERKIN ON SCORING STREAK
Junior forward James Perkin has a point in each game this season (2-2), and combined with an assist in the final game last season, he goes into this weekend with a career-equalling five-game point streak. Perkin had a five-game point streak last season midway through the year during which he tallied one goal and seven assists. He had a point in 17 of the 37 games he played in last season. Both of his goals this season have come on the power play. Last season, he was second on the team with five extra-man goals. Perkin had a goal and an assist in the Falcons last win in Alaska two years ago. His goal was the game winner.
SPRATT OPENS SEASON IN GOAL
Senior goaltender Jimmy Spratt opened the 2008-09 season in goal for the Falcons and had two strong performances. The Chesterfield, Mich. native stopped 26 of 28 shots (.929 save %) in the win over RIT while allowing just a pair of goals. He had 27 stops in the loss to Providence last weekend. He has now played in 68 career games, with 65 of those starts. Spratt, who has 1,710 career saves, needs just 160 saves to move into 10th-place on the BGSU career list. Angelo Libertucci (89-93) currently holds down the #10 spot with 1,869 saves.
ENO CLOSE TO BEING BACK
The other half of last year's goaltending duo, sophomore Nick Eno, will miss his third successive weekend with a left ankle sprain. He did practice Monday and Tuesday of this week and it is hoped he will be able to play next week when the Falcons host Nebraska-Omaha. Eno, who sported a 12-10-0 record with a 2.79 goals-against average and .905 save percentage last year, became the third Falcon netminder to earn CCHA All-Rookie Team honors. He joined Bob Petrie (1994) and Aaron Elllis (1993) as the other first-year Falcon goalies to earn those accolades. The Howell, Mich. native's goals-against average last season ranks seventh on the single-season BG list, while his save percentage is tied for seventh-best.
FALCON QUICK HITS
BG returns 21 letterwinners from a year ago and seven of their top 10 scorers...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...sophomore forward Wade Finnegan, after playing in only four games last season and not scoring a point, and not playing in the first three games this season, notched his first career point with an assist on a BG goal in the first four minutes of the Providence contest...sophomore David Solway has scored a point in each of the last three games, the best point streak of his career...he has two goals and two assists in the last three contests...the Falcons are just five-of-32 (15%) this season on the power-play, two-of-17 (12%) last week in the two games on the East Coast...despite only six more power-play opportunities than their opposition, BG has recorded 46 shots on goal during their man-advantage situations while the opposition is averaging less than one shot per power-play (23 shots on 26 power-play opportunities)...14 different players have scored a points after the first four games of the season...the Falcons lost their CCHA opener last season at home to Notre Dame before running off five-straight CCHA wins...BG has not won their CCHA opener since the 1998-99 season...junior forward Tommy Dee, who missed the Providence game after suffering a concussion late in Boston College contest, is making the trip to Alaska and is expected to play.
ALASKA NOTES
The Nanooks return 13 letterwinners from the squad that posted a 9-21-5 overall mark last season and an 8-16-4 record in CCHA play, good for ninth place...among the 10 letterwinners lost for the Nanooks was defenseman Tyler Eckford, a first-team All-American, who had 31 points last season and was a first team All-CCHA selection...Alaska has a compiled a 2-1-1 record in its first four games this season with wins over Mercyhurst (5-0) and Connecticut (5-0), a loss to Maine (2-0) and a tie with Northeastern (2-2)...their leading scorer this season is senior forward Braden Walls with five points on three goals and two assists...senior captain Adam Naglich has four points (2-2) as does junior forward Dion Knelson (0-4)...Knelson led last year's team with 33 points (11-22)...in goal, senior Chad Johnson and freshman Scott Greenham have split the playing time thus far...Johnson, who has played in the Maine and Northeastern games, has a 0-1-1 record with a 1.94 goals-against and a .911 save percentage...Greenham has won both his starts without allowing a goal stopping all 38 shots he has seen...Johnson played in seven games last season posting an 0-6-0 record with a 3.36 goals-against and an .893 save percentage...like Bowling Green, Alaska has only five seniors on its roster...Alaska has outscored its opponents, 12-4, this season, but has been outsthot by the opposition, 135-83...the Nanooks are three-of-28 on the power-play while the have allowed just one man-advantage goal in 21 opponent attempts...head coach Dallas Ferguson is in his first season with the Nanooks after spending the previous four seasons as an assistant coach on the staff.
LAST WEEK
Special teams were the story of the weekend as the Falcons dropped games to Hockey East opponents Boston College and Providence. In the Friday matchup with BC, who came into the contest #1-ranked in the country, 30 minor penalties led to 21 power-play opportunities for the two teams in a 5-3 Eagle victory. BC scored three times in the first period, but the Falcons put the only goal on the board in the second stanza to trail by only one heading into the final period. But, BC scored just 18 seconds into the third period and built a three-goal edge with a tally at 11:25. A short-handed goal, the second of the game by BG and one of three in the contest, by BG sophomore forward Dan Sexton finished the scoring. BG was one-of-nine with the man-advantage and BC was two-of-12 while BG had a 28-18 edge in shots. BG tallied the only first period goal in the 4-3 loss to Providence, but the Friars came back to score three times in the second period, including a back-breaking tally with just one second left in the stanza. And an early third period goal by Providence increased their advantage to two goals before the Falcons scored with four seconds left to make it the final margin. Providence was two-of-five on the power play while BG was one-for-eight. BG had a 32-31 edge in shots.
NEXT WEEK
The Falcons continue Central Collegiate Hockey Association play hosting Nebraska-Omaha for a weekend series. The two team will square-off on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 at the BGSU Ice Arena. Opening faceoff is scheduled for 7:05 each night.
