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Bowling Green State University Athletics
BG Hockey Team Hosts Undefeated Nebraska-Omaha
October 28, 2008 | Ice Hockey
Oct. 28, 2008
BOWLING GREEN, OHIO -
THIS WEEK
The Bowling Green State University hockey team returns home, after spending the last two weeks on the road, for a pair of games against Central Collegiate Hockey Association foe University of Nebraska-Omaha. The two teams will play a weekend series at the BGSU Ice Arena (5,000) with games on Friday and Saturday nights. The opening face-off will be at 7:05 p.m. both nights.
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. The 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 this weekend.
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 "gametracker" icon on the right hand side of the page.
OFFENSIVELY CONSISTENT
Before last weekend, the Falcons had scored in 11 of the 12 regulation time periods in the first four contests. But, the offense struggled in Alaska scoring just one goal, although it proved to be the game-winner in the Friday contest. In fact, coming into the Alaska weekend, BG had scored at least one goal in 11 consecutive periods. Through the first six games, the offense has still managed to put a tally on the board in 12 of 18 periods. By comparison, Bowing Green's opposition has scored in just eight of the 18 periods. Of the 12 periods in which BG has scored, 11 of those have been periods of one goal. The opposition has scored two or more goals in five of the eight periods in which they have found the net.
PLAYING THE BEST
The Falcons will play 14 games this season 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). BG has already played defending national champion Boston College and Niagara this season.
SVENDSEN SCORES GAME-WINNER
Senior forward Brandon Svendsen had two goals in the first game of the season, the first multiple-goal game of his career. The Roseville, Minn. native then scored one of the biggest goals of his career notching the only tally in BG's 1-0 win at Alaska. Svendsen, just coming on the ice for a line change, skated to a point between the circles and took a perfect pass from sophomore forward Dan Sexton putting the puck in the right corner of the net with only just over three minutes left. It was Svendsen's third career game-winner, but first since his freshman season. His three goals this season tie him for the team lead with junior forward Kai Kantola. He is already almost one-third of the way toward a new career best for goals in a season. Svendsen had 10 goals in his freshman season (`05-06).
SPRATT AMONG CAREER LEADERS
Senior goaltender Jimmy Spratt has started all six games this season. Spratt recorded his first career shutout in the 1-0 win over Alaska last Friday night turning away all 30 shots he faced. He has allowed three of fewer goals in four of the six games this year and has a 2.82 goals-against, almost a full goal beter than his career GAA coming into this season. He has just the one game of 30 or more saves and has a .887 save percentage. He has now played in 72 career games, with 69 of those starts. Spratt, who has 1,762 career saves, needs just 108 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. Spratt is also 10th on the BGSU career list for saves in CCHA games with 1,289. He is 106 saves behind Mike David's (1979-83) total of 1,395.
ENO CLOSE TO BEING BACK
The other half of last year's goaltending duo, sophomore Nick Eno, missed his third successive weekend with a left ankle sprain. He did practice last week and it is hoped he will be able to play this week when the Falcons host the Mavericks. 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.
POWER PLAY NEEDS TO PICK UP
The Falcons have struggled on the power-play thus far this season and will look to turn that around this weekend at home against Nebraska-Omaha. BG has converted on only five-of-44 man-advantage chances this season, an 11.4% conversion rate. BG did not convert on any of their 12 chances over the weekend in Alaska. Despite their difficulties, BG had scored at least one power-play goal in each of the first four games of the season. BG does have 62 shots this season on the power play while they have limited the opposition, which has only a 17.1% conversion rate, to just 31 shots in 35 power-play opportunities. Junior forward James Perkin leads the team with both of his goals this season coming with BG having the manpower advantage.
SEXTON LEADING THE OFFENSE
Sophomore forward Dan Sexton leads the team with seven points (1-6) which ties him for fifth-place in the CCHA at 1.17 points per game. The Apple Valley, Minn. native is tied for second in assists averaging 1.00 per game. Sexton was fifth on the team last season with 21 points (7-14). He has a point in four of the six games this season. He had a three-game point streak to start this season which equalled the best of his career.
HOME COOKING
After making two trips in the first three weeks of the season, the Falcons will now look to use the friendly confines of the BGSU Ice Arena to get on a roll. BGSU plays 12 of its next 16 games at home, and looking even further on the schedule, 15 of their next 20. After concluding a home series with Lake Superior on Jan. 24, the Falcons will have played 17 of their first 26 games at home. But, of course, then the schedule flip-flops and BG will play seven of their last 10 on the road to conclude the regular season.
FALCON QUICK HITS
BG returns 21 letterwinners from a year ago and seven of their top 10 scorers...the win over Alaska in the CCHA opener was the first time since the 1998-99 season BG had started league play with a victory...last season, a win in their second CCHA game of the season started the Falcons on a five-game winning streak...BG's last 1-0 win in CCHA play came on March 2, 2001 at home in overtime against Ferris State...the last BG shutout of a CCHA opponent came on Jan. 31, 2003 when the Falcons did not allow a goal at Nebraska-Omaha in a 5-0 victory...the Falcons have yet to be outshot this season and have a 198-150 edge, an average of eight more shots per contest...BG has held their opponent without a goal in eight of the 12 second and third periods this season...leading scorer, sophomore forward Dan Sexton, has scored a point in four of the six games and has seven points on the season to go along with a +3 on-ice rating...senior forward James Perkin also has a point in four of the games this season and is one of three players with four points (2-2)...junior forward Kai Kantola (3-1) and sophomore forward David Solway (2-2) also have four points...Solway had a career-best three-game point streak snapped over the weekend in Alaska...Perkin also had his career-best point streak of five games halted over the weekend...BG has held the lead for just 26:29 of the possible 360 minutes this season, 18:51 of that early in the Providence game...senior goalie Jimmy Spratt is 10th in the overall CCHA statistics in goals-against average (2.82) and 13th in save percentage (.867)...he is fourth in the CCHA in saves (22.2/game)...in conference play, he is sixth in goals-against (1.52), fifth in save percentage (.945) and tied for sixth in saves averaging 26.0 per game...he is also one of five goalies in the CCHA to record a shutout, and one of eight in all games.
NEBRASKA NOTES
The Mavericks are one of only two unbeaten and untied teams in the country...only Air Force (6-0-0) also has an unblemished record...Northeastern, Minnesota and Colorado College have not lost any games, but have ties on their record...UNO has played all four of its games to dates at home having beaten American International (4-1), Union (2-1), and Mercyhurst (3-1, 5-2)...UNO was 9-10 on the road last season and 7-7 in CCHA play...the Mavericks return 19 letterwinners from last season, including eight defensemen and both goalies...head coach Mike Kemp is in his 12th season having compiled a 183-206-49 record...leading the returning players on defense is junior Eddie DelGrosso and sophomore Alain Goulet...DelGrosso was fifth on the team with 24 points last season and he has two assists this year...Goulet is the lone NHL draft pick (159th overall, 2007, Boston) on the roster and his three points (2-1) this season are tied for third on the team...her has a +4 on-ice rating this season...the two goalies, junior Jeremie Dupont and senior Jerad Kaufman, have split time this season...Kaufman, who played 30 games last season (14-12-3, 2.98, .890) has played against Union and the second Mercyhurst game compiling a 1.44 goals-against and a .933 save percentage...Dupont, who played in nine game a year ago (1-6-0, 4.92, .816) has a 1.00 goals-against and a .950 save percentage...the two scoring leaders for the Mavericks are senior forward Dan Charleston and sophomore forward Rich Purslow...Charleston is the top returning scorer for the Mavericks having put 37 points (12-25) on the board last season...he has five points (3-2) this season...Purslow, who had seven points (1-6) in 27 games last season, also has five points (1-4) this year...both players had one goal and two assists in the win over American International...Charleston was the CCHA Offensive Player of the Week the second week of the season...he needs six points to become a member of the 100-point club...UNO led the nation with 53 power-play goals a year ago, but graduation claimed players who scored 30 of those man-advantage markers...the Mavericks have five man-advantage tallies this season while having yet to allow a power-play goal in 23 attempts by opponents...like the Falcons, UNO holds a healthy advantage over its opponents in shots, 151-85...UNO had five freshmen find the scoresheet last weekend...UNO started 5-0-0 in 2004-05, the best start in school history.
LAST WEEK
The Falcons and Alaska took turns posting shutouts in the weekend series in Fairbanks last week...BG took its turn on Friday night as senior goaltender Jimmy Spratt saved all 30 shots he faced and senior forward Brandon Svendsen scored at the 16:46 mark of the third period to make BG a 1-0 winner...sophomore forward Dan Sexton dug the puck out along the boards to the side of the net and made the pass to Svendsen for his third career game-winner...Spratt made several point blank saves and helped the Falcons turn away all five Nanook power-play attempts...both teams had 30 shots in the game...Alaska took its turn Saturday night with a 3-0 victory...BG had a 27-25 edge in shots, but a first period tally coupled with Nanook goals early and late in the second period, their third goal with just five seconds left in the stanza, gave each team two points for the weekend...Spratt made 22 saves in the game.
NEXT WEEK
The Falcons continue Central Collegiate Hockey Association play making the long trip to Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. for a weekend series with the Lakers. The two teams will play Friday and Saturday night contests that start at 7:05 p.m.
