Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Return To Action With Home-And-Home Against Fighting Irish
December 08, 2008 | Ice Hockey
Dec. 8, 2008
BOWLING GREEN, OHIO -
Week 10 News and Notes (vs. Notre Dame)
Game #17
#1 Notre Dame (12-3-2, 8-2-2-2 CCHA) vs. Bowling Green (5-8-3, 4-5-1-0 CCHA)
Dec. 12, 2008 • Bowling Green, Ohio (BGSU Ice Arena - 5,000) • 7:05
Game #18
Bowling Green (5-8-3, 4-5-1-0 CCHA) vs. #1 Notre Dame (12-3-2, 8-2-2-2 CCHA)
Dec. 13, 2008 • Notre Dame, Ind. (Joyce Center - 2,713) • 7:06
THIS WEEK
The Bowling Green State University hockey team will battle Notre Dame for the second time this season as the two teams meet for a home-and-home series. The contest Friday will be played at the BGSU Ice Arena with the opening face-off at 7:05 while the following night the two teams will tangle in South Bend, Ind. for a 7:06 contest. The two Central Collegiate Hockey Association foes played a two-game series on Nov. 21-22 in which the Fighting Irish won both games.
RADIO
All games this season can be heard on WBGU 88.1 FM. Bob Mills will provide the play-by-play with Pat Dougherty (Friday) and Brian Fisher (Saturday) doing the color commentary. 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 game Friday will air locally on the Buckeye Cable System Network (BCSN) with Greg Franke calling the play-by-play and former BGSU hockey coach Buddy Powers providing the color commentary. The contest will be tape delayed with the game airing for the first time at 1:30 a.m. Saturday morning. The Friday contest is also part of the NHL Network Friday Game of the Week package with the game airing live on NHL Network in both Canada and the United States. The Saturday game is the first of five appearances this season for the Falcons on the CCHA/Comcast Saturday Game of the Week. The game will air live on the NHL Network in Canada and on Comcast Television. Ben Holden will be the play-by-play announcer while Sean Ritchlin is the analyst and Art Regnier the "sideline" reporter. The Saturday game will air on a tape delayed basis Sunday at noon on the NHL Network in the United States.
LIVE STATS
Live stats for all Falcon games are available on the BGSU web site (www.bgsufalcons.com). 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.
FALCON'S NEST RADIO SHOW
BGSU head coach Scott Paluch will be a guest on BGSU's weekly radio show held at the Frickers's restaurant across from Perry Stadium each Monday. Paluch will be on the show Dec. 8 and 29. He will also have a segment of the show on Jan. 12 and 26, and Feb. 9 and 23. The radio show, which begins at 6 p.m., is hosted by Todd Walker and can be heard on WCWA 1230 AM.
CARRYING THE LOAD
The Falcons' top line of senior Brandon Svendsen and sophomores David Solway and Dan Sexton continues to carry a large portion of the load offensively. The trio has only three points (one goal, two assists) in the last four games as teams have put more of an emphasis on stopping them. The Minnesota State series was the first weekend this season the line did not score a goal. In CCHA play thus far (10 games), this line has accounted for 13 of the 17 BG goals (76%), collected 18 of the 25 assists (72%) and 31 of the 42 points (74%). They are a combined plus-12 while the rest of the team is minus-56. The line combined to score seven points (3-4) the first weekend, five points (2-3) the second weekend, two points (1-1) the third weekend, 12 points (5-7) the fourth weekend, six points (3-3) the fifth weekend, nine points (3-6) sixth weekend and nine points the seventh weekend. Overall this season, the trio has scored 18 of the 34 Falcon goals, they have collected 26 of the 51 assists, and 44 of the 85 points. The top BG line has accounted for at least one point on 24 of the 34 goals this season. Two of the players have been involved in 14 goals and they have combined as a line to score five times, all five of those occurrences in BG home games. At least two of the players from the line have had a hand in 12 of the last 21 BG goals.
MORE SVENDSEN
Senior Brandon Svendsen, the left-winger on the line, did not have a point in the Minnesota State series, only the second weekend this season he has not found the scoresheet. He has two short-handed goals this season, second-best total in the country, and four for his career. The alternate captain for the Falcons this season has scored a point in eight games this season, including a point in six of the last 10 games totalling 11 points (3-8). Svendsen and Sexton lead the team with five multi-point games with Svendsen having four of his five multi-point games in his last 10 contests. He had a career-best three (1-2) points in the Nov. 8 game at Lake Superior. He is tied for second on the team with 14 points (6-8) while he leads the team in CCHA play with 12 points (4-8). The Roseville, Minn. native has a +1 on-ice rating for the season. He is well on his way to the best season of his career with a 19-point year as a freshman his best. He has already surpassed his goal total from all of last season when he scored four goals and had 13 points. Svendsen ranks among the CCHA leaders in five categories for all games and six categories for league games only. He is tied for seventh in the CCHA for all games scoring and is tied for sixth in scoring for league games.
MORE SOLWAY
Sophomore David Solway did not have a point in the Minnesota State series, only the second time this season he has gone both games of a series without a point. Solway earned CCHA Offensive Player of the Week honors for his performance Nov. 14-15 against Northern Michigan scoring three points (2-1), both goals in a 2-1 win on Friday (including the game-winner in overtime), and an assist on the game-winner the following night. Solway has a point in nine games this season, including six of the last 10 contests, in which he has accounted for 10 points (5-5). He has four multi-point games to his credit this season, including a career-best three (1-2) points against Nebraska-Omaha on Oct. 31. He is also well on his way to new career highs as he had 15 points (9-6) in the 2007-08 season. The Green Bay, Wis. native has an on-ice rating of +1 for the season. He is tied for second on the squad with 14 points (tied with Svendsen) and his 10 points in league play is also second on the team. He ranks among the CCHA leaders in four overall and league only categories. He is tied for seventh in the CCHA for all games scoring and is tied for 10th in CCHA play. His seven goals this season, which leads the team, is tied for third in the CCHA.
MORE SEXTON
Sophomore Dan Sexton had an assist in the Friday night game against Minnesota State. He has had only one weekend this season (vs. Notre Dame, Nov. 21-22) in which he has not contributed at least one point. Sexton, who leads the team with 16 points (5-11), has a point in a team-best 10 games this season with five of those multi-point efforts, including a career-best three (0-3) points in the season-opener against RIT. The Apple Valley, Minn. native, who had seven goals and 14 assists as a freshman, has an on-ice rating of plus-2. He ranks among the CCHA leaders in six categories and five different categories for league games. He is tied for fifth in the CCHA, for all games, in scoring and is tied for 15th in league games. His two game-winning goals is tied for the fifth-best total among all players in the country. His 10 assists this season puts him in a tie for fourth among all CCHA players. Sexton is third on the team in CCHA play with nine points (4-5).
TOP LINE GETTING SOME SCORING HELP
The Falcon coaching staff has been looking to get some scoring help for the top line of Svendsen, Solway and Sexton. Coming into the weekend series with Minnesota State, the trio had accounted for more than 70% of the goals, assists and points in league play and almost 60% of the points in all games. But, while the top line had only one point in the Minnesota State series, BG got all four goals and 10 of the 11 points for the weekend from other sources. In fact, the top line has just the one assist in the last three games while the other lines have provided the five goals and 13 of the 14 points.
KANTOLA HAS THREE-GOAL WEEKEND
Junior forward Kai Kantola had the best goal-scoring weekend of his career with three red-lighters in the weekend series against Minnesota State. He had his second multi-goal game of the season, and third of his career, with both goals in the Friday night tie and then had a tally Saturday night that cut the MSU lead to 3-2 in the third period. With his performance, he is now tied for the team lead with seven goals on the season and his eight points are fourth-best on the squad. His seven goals, along with the seven scored by teammate David Solway, rank tied for fifth in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association. Kantola's three goals in the Minnesota State series were the most scored by any player in the country that weekend.
ADDITIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS
A number of Falcon players contributed offensively in the Minnesota State series. Sophomore forward Patrick Tiesling came into the series with Minnesota State having not scored a point in the first 14 games of the season. Tiesling not only scored, he had three points for the weekend, three assists, matching his point total in 26 games as a freshman. He also had the first multi-point game of his career with assists on both Falcon goals Saturday night. Sophomore forward Jacob Cepis, who was a CCHA All-Rookie selection last season and was the next forward in line to make the preseason all-league team, did not score in the Saturday game with Minnesota State, but had assists in the previous two games. He had scored just one point during an 11-game span (Oct. 17-Nov. 21) before collecting assists against Notre Dame (Nov. 22) and Minnesota State (Nov. 28). Junior forward Josh Boyd had an assist Saturday night against Minnesota State, his second point in the last five games.
DEFENSIVE CORP CHIPPING IN
The Falcon defensive corp has also been helping at the offensive end of late. Freshman Nick Bailen, after scoring just one point in his first 12 games of the season, has contributed a goal and an assist in the last three games. Senior Kevin Schmidt had an assist in the Notre Dame game (Nov. 22) and junior captain Kyle Page scored his first collegiate goal in the Saturday loss to Minnesota State. The four points in the last three games is the best scoring streak for the defensive corp since they started the season with five points in the first four games. They, the defensemen, had scored just one point in a nine-game span (Oct. 24-Nov. 21) before getting on their current roll.
HOME COOKING
After making two trips in the first three weeks of the season and three in the first five weeks, the Falcons will now look to use the friendly confines of the BGSU Ice Arena to get on a roll. Beginning with the series against Nebraska-Omaha, BGSU will play 12 of its next 16 games at home, and looking even further down the schedule, 15 of 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. The Falcons are in the midst of a period in which they play 10-of-12 at home and they will not make another overnight trip this season until the Jan. 30-31 series at Miami. BG is 4-3-2 at home this season, 3-2 in league play.
SPRATT AMONG CAREER LEADERS
Senior goaltender Jimmy Spratt has started all 16 games this season. Spratt recorded his first career shutout in the 1-0 win over Alaska earlier this season (Oct. 24) turning away all 30 shots he faced. The Chesterfield, Mich. native enjoyed possibly the best weekend of his career earning the win in both games of the Northern Michigan series (Nov. 14-15). For the two games, he had a 0.99 goals-against and a .961 save percentage (two goals/49 saves). It was the first time since his freshman season (Nov. 4-5, 2005 vs. Nebraska-Omaha - his second and third career starts) that he won both games of a series. One of the goals he allowed was a power-play tally. He has allowed three or fewer goals in nine of the 16 games and has a 3.15 goals-against, a little less than one-half a goal better than his career GAA (3.66) coming into this season. He has just four games of 30 or more saves this season, a season-high 36 saves in his last game against Minnesota State, and has an .880 save percentage. In the 10 league games, Spratt has a 3.08 goals-against and an .884 save percentage. He has now played in 82 career games, with 79 of those starts. Spratt, who is one of only nine goalies in school history to reach the 2,000-save plateau, has 2,003 career saves, ninth on the BGSU list while his 1,473 stops in CCHA play is eight-best in school history and just 10 shy of Bob Petrie (1993-97) in the #7 spot.
ENO BACK ON THE ICE
The other half of last year's goaltending duo, sophomore Nick Eno, has not played this season because of a left ankle sprain but he did skate on the side last week doing some individual work. He will be ask to do a little more each day this week, but his status for this weekend is questionable. Eno, who sported a 12-10-0 record, 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 PACE
The Falcons had a power-play goal in each of the first four games of the season, but have converted at least once in just four of their last 12 games (five-for-71, 7%). BG is four-of-58 (7%) in their 10 league games with the man-advantage. The Falcons have allowed a power-play goal in each of the last five games (opponents are 11-of-31, 35.5%) and seven of the last nine.
LATE HEROICS
The Falcons have scored within the last five minutes of regulation time in eight different games this season. In three of those instances the goal broke a tie to win the game. In one instance it tied the game in a contest that ended deadlocked. And in another instance it tied the game and BG went on to win in overtime. BG has scored a total of eight goals (eight different contests) in the last five minutes of regulation time this season.
FALCON ICE CHIPS
BG returns 21 letterwinners from a year ago and seven of their top 10 scorers...the Falcons play 14 games this season against teams who played in the NCAA Tournament last season...the Falcons have a 4-3-2 record at home this season and in compiling that mark, they have outshot their opponents, 347 (38.6 avg.) to 235 (26.1 avg.)...despite the wide difference in shots, BG has been outscored, 30-22, at home...BG has three one-goal victories at home, winning twice on red-lighters in the last four minutes of the game, and once in overtime...Bowling Green is 5-3-2 at home in their last 10 games dating back to the end of last season...BG has 10 games this season with 30 or more shots, the opposition seven...BG has given up a goal in only 26 of the 48 periods this season, but in 16 of those 26 periods in which the opposition has scored, they have yielded two or more tallies...by comparison, BG has scored in 25 periods, but they have more than one goal in only five of those 25 periods...BG had a string of 11 successive periods in which they scored at least one goal earlier this season...BG has scored two or fewer goals in nine of their last 12 games...BG is averaging 1.75 goals per game over the last 12 contests...BG is 8-6-3 at home against non-CCHA teams under head coach Scott Paluch...defenseman Tim Maxwell has left the team for academic reasons...the senior played in 11 games this season with a +5 on-ice rating before making his decision prior to the Minnesota State series...after yielding an average of 2.67 goals per game in the first 12 games of the season, BG has given up an average of 5.25 goals in the last four contests... in the last four games, the opposition has scored in nine of 12 periods in regulation time with the Falcons yielding multiple goals in six of the nine periods...BG is 2-5-2 in its last nine games...the Falcons reach the halfway point of the season with the series this weekend against Notre Dame...the Falcons are 4-3-1 in the first game of a series this season, and 1-5-2 in the series finale...this weekend will be the second time this season the Falcons have faced the top-ranked team in the country - when BG played Boston College earlier this season they were the #1 team in the country.
NOTRE DAME NOTES
The Fighting Irish come into the weekend series with the Falcons as the top-ranked team in the country...Notre Dame is on a 12-game unbeaten streak (10-0-2), the longest streak in the nation...they have not lost since they were swept at home by Miami on Oct. 24-25...senior center Christian Hanson leads the team with 10 goals and is tied for the team lead with sophomore winger Calle Ridderwall (8-12) who both have 20 points, which is tied for third in the CCHA...Hanson's goal total is second in the league...Hanson and Ridderwall are tied for the CCHA lead in scoring with 18 points in league games only...winger Billy Maday is the top scoring freshman in the conference with 16 points (9-7) and he is fourth in the country in points among first-year players...Notre Dame has 10 players with 10 or more points and 15 different players who have scored at least one goal...senior goaltender Jordan Pearce has played all but just over 80 minutes this season and has an 11-3-2 record with a 1.66 goals-against, second in the CCHA and seventh in the nation, and a .937 save percentage, second in the league and ninth-best in the country...junior Brett Blatchford is one of the top scoring defensemen in the CCHA with 14 points (all assists)...he is second in the CCHA and tied for 15th nationally in scoring by defensemen...Notre Dame leads the league in scoring both overall and in league games while they are second in team defense overall and third in league play...they also have eight more power-play goals than any other team in the CCHA and their 28 power-play goals this season is the top figure in the country...Notre Dame has won seven straight road games this season since losing the season opener at Denver...head coach Jeff Jackson is in his fourth season at Notre Dame where his teams have compiled a 84-45-13 record while his overall record stands at 266-97-38 in nine-plus seasons.
LAST TIME OUT
BGSU hosted a Western Collegiate Hockey Association team for the first time since 1990 and the nationally-ranked Mavericks of Minnesota State took three of four points on the weekend with the two teams skating to a 2-all overtime tie on Friday and MSU scoring five of the last six goals to earn a 5-2 victory on Saturday. Minnesota State scored a goal in the first and second periods of the Friday night contest and seemed have things going their way. But, Falcon junior forward Kai Kantola deflected a Nick Bailen shot past MSU goalie Mike Zacharias at the 14:42 mark of the second stanza to cut the deficit in half. And then, Kantola knotted the score with just 23 seconds left in the period on a power-play goal and that is the way it ended. The Falcons had a 12-6 edge in shots in the third period, but could not get the game-winner and both teams had four shots in the extra period. BG had a 40-23 edge in shots for the game while MSU was one-of-four with the extra man and BG converted one of their seven opportunities. In the Saturday contest, the Falcons got on the board first with a point shot from junior defenseman Kyle Page finding the back of the net at the 11:09 mark of the first period. MSU scored twice in the second period and midway through the third to take a 3-1 edge. Then, Kantola scored his third goal of the weekend at 11:57 of the final stanza to make it a 3-2 game. But, MSU got the next goal, just 26 seconds after Kantola's tally, to steal back the momentum and later added an empty-netter. MSU turned the tables on the Falcons winning the shot battle, 41-27, including a 30-15 edge over the final two periods. BG could not convert on any of their six power-play opportunities while the Mavericks were one-of-seven.
NEXT WEEK
Bowling Green will close out their pre-Christmas schedule with a pair of non-league contests against Clarkson on Dec. 19-20. Both games of the series will be played at the BGSU Ice Arena with the puck dropped at 7:05 p.m. on Friday and at 5:05 on Saturday.
