Hockey Back in Town; Host Western Michigan This Weekend

Bowling Green Falcons
(3-18-3, 2-13-3-2)

vs.

Western Michigan Broncos
(6-12-4, 2-11-3-1)

Jan. 22, 2010 - 7:05 p.m. EST
Jan. 23, 2010 - 5:05 p.m. EST
BGSU Ice Arena - Bowling Green, Ohio

Listen to the game - click here!
Live stats - click here!

Bowling Green game notes
CCHA Weekly - Week 16

THIS WEEKEND
BGSU hockey will bring the show back to the BGSU Ice Arena for the first time in more than a month when the Western Michigan Broncos (6-12-4, 2-11-3-1) come to town for a pair of CCHA contests. The Falcons and Broncos will battle it out for conference seeding on Friday night (7:05 p.m. EST) and Saturday afternoon (5:05 p.m. EST) at the Ice Arena this weekend. The Broncos come off a bye week whereas the Falcons are looking to gain more points in the conference standings after picking up a point following their shoot out loss to Northern Michigan on Saturday night.

MEDIA COVERAGE
This weekend's hockey games can be heard as scheduled on WBGU-FM with Everett Fitzhugh bringing you the live action, shot-for-shot. Kevin “Tug” McGraw will join Fitzhugh on the broadcasts. The pregame show will air 30 minutes prior to the opening face-off. Both broadcasts can be heard globally on www.bgsufalcons.com.

Saturday afternoon's contest will be broadcast on Buckeye Cable's BCSN on tape delay to follow the Toledo Walleye game. On the call will be Greg Franke and Scott Paluch.

Live stats for all BGSU home games are available on the BGSU web site - www.bgsufalcons.com - via Live Scoring. The stats can be accessed from the schedule page in the hockey section of the web site by clicking on the “details” icon on the right hand side of the page, then by clicking “live scoring”.

LAST TIME OUT
Last Friday the Falcons allowed four power-play goals to the NMU Wildcats in a 6-0 shut out at the Berry Events Center (Marquette, Mich.) in the first shut out the Falcons had suffered in nearly a year. Ironically enough, the last shut out the Falcons suffered was at the hands of the Wildcats on Feb. 3, 2009 in that same building by a score of 3-0. To avenge the loss Friday night, the Falcons came out strong Saturday with two goals in the first period off of the sticks of Tomas Petruska (Sr., F) and Jordan Samuels-Thomas (Fr., F). Petruska had two goals on the evening, his first on the power play with goal number two coming in the second period while playing five-on-five. Samuels-Thomas' goal was a product of a turnover created by Petruska who unselfishly dished the puck to the freshman on a two-on-none breakaway chance. The Falcons could not hold onto a 3-1 lead taken into the third period, however. NMU scored two unanswered goals to take a tie into and through overtime leading to the Falcons third shootout of the season. The Falcons lost in the shootout by a score of 2-0, but would pull away with one point on the weekend.

THE STARTING FIVE - Five Facts On BGSU Hockey

(1) In the34-year history between these two schools, BGSU and WMU have met a total of 128 times since their first meeting in 1970. The all-time series favors Bowling Green, 75-49--4, though BGSU was swept by the Broncos last season by scores of 5-2 and 5-3 in Kalamazoo, Mich.

(2) Three Falcons have found themselves on the Hobey Baker Award nomination list released earlier this month. Kyle Page (Sr., D), Tomas Petruska (Sr., F) and Jordan Samuels-Thomas (Fr., F) are all available to earn votes towards the 2010 Hobey Baker Award. To vote, visit www.hobeybaker.com/vote

(3) The Falcons have won four out of the last six games against WMU at the BGSU Ice Arena and possess an all-time mark of 42-20-0 at home against the Broncos.

(4) Of all the CCHA schools, the Falcons have scored the second-most all-time goals against the Broncos with a grand total of 598. The only other school BGSU has scored more goals against in their program's history is Ohio State (721).

(5) In recent years, the Falcons have struggled in the second half of their seasons. Last year the Falcons finished their last 18 games with a 4-14-0 record. Since 2000-01, BGSU has only had two seasons with post-.500 records in the second half of the season (2000-01, 2004-05) and have a combined record of 49-107-11 in that time. This year, they are currently 1-4-1 through six games in the second half of 2009-10.

PETRUSKA HAS CAREER NIGHT
Tomas Petruska (Sr., F) had the most successful night in his Falcon career in the team's most recent action against NMU in their 3-3 tie on Jan. 12. Petruska scored two goals, one on the power play, and added an assist (2-1--3) after creating a Wildcat turnover for his first three-point night and two goal game of his career. Previously, Petruska had eight multi-point games - three of which came this season - but none with two goals in the same game.

BESTS IN BROWN AND ORANGE
Three Falcon seniors are having or on pace to having career seasons in 2009-10. Tomas Petruska has already eclipsed previous career-highs in assists (11) and points (18) that he had set as a freshman - previously nine and 17 - and is one goal shy of tying his career-high in goals. He currently has seven goals this season with a career high of eight set in 2006-07. Kyle Page last year set career highs in goals (4), assists (11) and points (15). He is now one goal, one assist and two points away from tying his career-highs with a scoring line of 3-9--12. Lastly, Tommy Dee (Sr., F) has already eclipsed his previous bests of seven goals (2008-09), three assists (2007-08) and eight points (2008-09) with a line of 8-5--13 this year.

STREAK BREAKERS
With Tomas Petruska's first period power-play goal against NMU Saturday night (Jan. 12), he broke a season-long streak of 18 consecutive BGSU power plays killed by their opponents stemming back to Jan. 8 at Ohio State. Prior to Saturday's NMU game, Jordan Samuels-Thomas had not scored a goal in his last four games - the second time he had a four-game scoreless streak. His goal against the Wildcats was his team-leading eighth red-lighter.

UNCOMMON 0'S
The Falcons 6-0 loss to Northern Michigan on Jan. 15 marked the first time in the 2009-10 season that Falcons had been held scoreless in a game. It also broke a streak of 31 consecutive games the Falcons had scored at least one goal dating back to Jan. 31, 2009. The last time the Falcons had been shut out in a game was on Feb. 6, 2009 against NMU in a 3-0 Wildcat win in Marquette, Mich. last season. The Falcons had been blanked a total of four times last season.

HELPY MC-HELPERTON - PART 1
Senior captain, Kyle Page, has been especially helpful towards the Falcon offense recently. From Nov. 28 through Jan. 9, Page scored points in six of those nine games , including six assists and a goal. Twice, those assists came in back-to-back games (Nov. 28 - Dec. 4 and Dec. 11-12). His lone goal came against Clarkson (Jan. 3) when he posted a multi-point game with a goal and an assist. He is currently one goal and one assist away from tying career-highs in both categories. Last year, Page posted a career year with four goals, ten assists and 14 points - all career highs.

HELPY MC-HELPERTON - PART 2
After David Solway (Jr., F), Jordan Samuels-Thomas (Fr., F) and Tomas Petruska (Sr., F) all recorded assists in Saturday night's 3-3 tie against NMU, all three Falcons have a share for the team lead in assists with 11 on the season. Petruska has the slight edge with ten helpers in CCHA competition while Solway and Samuels-Thomas have nine and eight, respectively. Solway now has three assists in as many games, with two coming against NMU on Jan. 16.

SCOUTING THE WESTERN MICHIGAN BRONCOS
Recent Action: Western Michigan will be returning to play following a bye week last weekend. Prior to their weekend off, the Broncos participated in a home-and-home with the University of Michigan on Jan. 8-9. In that series WMU was swept by the Wolverines by scores of 4-3 and 6-1. Western is riding into Bowling Green on a seven-game winless streak and is 0-5-2-0 record in that time with their last win dating back to Dec. 4, 2009 against the then-No. 12 Alaska Nanooks, 3-1. During their winless streak, Western Michigan has been outscored 24-11 and were shut out three times, twice by Bemidji State.

Players to Watch: The Broncos leading scorer is J.J. Crew, who has a scoring line of 7-8--15 on the season. He leads the team in goals, is second in assists and is tied with teammate Greg Squires for total points. Twice has Crew scored the game-winner for his Broncos and thrice has he scored a goal on the power play. Crew has also recorded the only hat-trick for Western Michigan, which was accomplished in the season opener against Mercyhurst on Oct. 16. Squires is the leading helper on the WMU squad with 13 assists on the season accompanying his two goals this season. Jared Katz is next on the list in total goals scored with his half-dozen paired with his four assists (10 points). Katz leads the team in goals scored against conference opponents with five. Two other viable offensive threats include Trevor Elias (5-6--11) and Chris Clackson (5-5--10), rounding out the list of double-digit point scorers on the WMU roster. Between the posts will likely be Riley Gill, who has started 17 of their 22 games this season. He has an overall GAA of 2.68 and a save-percentage of .922 on the season. Since entering conference play, his number have altered some as his GAA has risen (3.14) and his save-percentage has fallen (.914).

Statistically Speaking: The Broncos are 2-7-0 on the road and have no won away from home since their first road series against Alabama-Hunstsville on Oct. 23 (2-1) and Oct. 24 (2-1). They have lost seven straight road games since. The Falcons and Broncos are in the same boat where scoring has been an issue all season long. In conference play, WMU is last in power-play offense (.108) and goals scored (33) while finished next-to-last in total offense (2.06 gpg) and shots on goal (27.1). In the overall stat column, WMU is tenth on the PK (.796) while they are 11th on the PP (.123). They are in a tie for having scored the fewest first period goals in the conference this season (12), ironically with No. 2 Miami.

More details are within the downloadable game notes located at the top of the page

Calendar

Upcoming Events

Recent Results

Next Event

Upcoming Events

Recent Results

Bowling Green State University Athletics

Hockey Back in Town; Host Western Michigan This Weekend

Next Event

Related Videos