Ranked Michigan Wolverines Visit BGSU for Weekday Series

Bowling Green Falcons
(4-18-4, 3-13-4-3)

vs.

Michigan Wolverines
(15-12-1, 10-9-1-0)

Feb. 4, 2010, 2010 - 7:05 p.m. EST
BGSU Ice Arena - Bowling Green, Ohio

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BGSU media notes
Michigan media notes
CCHA Weekly

THIS WEEK
Following their most recent bye week, the Bowling Green Falcons begin the month of February back in the friendly confines of the BGSU Ice Arena for their second home-and-home series with the University of Michigan. The series will be an unusual weekday slate of games beginning this Thursday (Feb. 4) and ending next Tuesday when the Falcons travel to Ann Harbor, Mich. to close the series up. Thursday's contest will begin at 7:05 p.m. EST while next Tuesday's game will start at 7:35 p.m. EST inside The Yost.

MEDIA COVERAGE
Radio: This weekend's hockey games can be heard as scheduled on WBGU-FM with Everett Fitzhugh bringing you the live action, shot-for-shot. Brian Fisher will join Fitzhugh on the broadcasts with the color analysis. The pregame show will air 30 minutes prior to the opening face-off. Both broadcasts can be heard globally on www.bgsufalcons.com.
TV: Thursday evening's contest will be broadcast on the Buckeye Cable Sports Network (BCSN) LIVE. Pregame coverage will begin one hour before the opening faceoff. On the call will be Greg Franke and former BGSU hoead coach, Scott Paluch.
Live stats: 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
Prior to the bye week last weekend, the Falcons battled in their most productive series of the season while hosting the Western Michigan Broncos back on Jan. 22-23. With a tie and shootout win on Friday (1/22) plus a 4-3 regulation win (1/23) over the Broncos, the Falcons accumulated five points on the weekend. Brennan Vargas (So., F) scored BGSU's first goal by penalty shot since Feb. 2002 while Kai Kantola (Sr., F) came one point closer to joining the 50-point club with his power-play goal on Friday. Two more Falcon goals by Cameron Sinclair (So., F) and David Solway (Jr., F) gave the Falcons a two-goal lead going into the final minutes of the third period. Bowling Green relinquished that lead to WMU but pulled out a 4-3 decision in the shootout for the two points on the line. Saturday night James McIntosh (So., F) scored his first collegiate goal to give BGSU an early lead, but the game-deciding tally would be scored by freshman standout, Jordan Samuels-Thomas (Fr., F), with just over five minutes remaining to give the Falcons the final advantage of 4-3 by the final horn's sound. Junior postminder, Nick Eno (Jr., G) made a combined 46 saves on the weekend, including two shootout saves to add a tie, shootout win and regulation win to his resume.

THE STARTING FIVE - Five Facts On BGSU Hockey

(1) The Falcons and Wolverines have an all-time series record of 33-73-3, favoring Michigan dating back to 1971. The two teams have already squared off twice this season with BG winning in Ann Harbor, 4-2, and Michigan winning the weekend finale at Lucas County Arena (Toledo, Ohio), 4-1.

(2) The last time Bowling Green beat Michigan inside the BGSU Ice Arena was on Feb. 9, 2007 in a 3-2 decision. In that game Tomas Petruska, then a freshman, score the game-winning goal with 35 seconds remaining in the third period to give the Falcons the win.

(3) Three of the next four weekends to close out the 2009-10 season will be games played within Bowling Green's cluster. BGSU has home-and-home series with Michigan (2/4, 2/9) and Michigan State (2/26-27) and host Notre Dame on 2/19-20. Cluster play will be halted for a weekend where the Falcons bring in the top team in the land, No. 1 Miami Redhawks.

(4) 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

(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 50-107-12 in that time. This year, they are currently 2-4-2 through six games in the second half of 2009-10.

WELCOME TO THE CLUB
Needing two points to achieve the feat, Tomas Petruska (Sr., F) tallied two goals on Jan. 16 against NMU to achieve his 49th and 50th points of his career. He now is the third Falcon this season to eclipse 50 career points (David Solway - 55 and James Perkin - 53). He has since added two assists to now make his total career point marker 52, third most for active Falcons. Senior Forward Kai Kantola is only one point away from joining the club himself. He resides with 49 career points (26-23--49) going into this weekend.

SEASON-HIGH PRODUCTIVITY
With a shootout win and a tie against Western Michigan on the weekend of Jan. 22-23, the Falcons strung together some of their best play to accumulate a season-high five points towards the CCHA standings. The team had twice brought home three points following back-to-back splits with Alaska (Nov. 13-14) and Michigan (Nov. 20-21). In their last two weekends, BGSU has tallied six points with a 1-1-2-1 record in that time.

THE YOST - A PLACE FOR SUCCESS
Prior to last year, the Falcons had not won a game in the Yost Ice Arena since 2002 (1/25/02, 6-3) but in their last two outings in Ann Harbor, Bowling Green has pulled away victories in both appearances. On Jan. 16, 2009 the Falcons recorded the first shutout victory over the Wolverines in BGSU hockey history with their 3-0 win. Earlier this season the Falcons came back from a goal down with two power-play tallies and a third unanswered goal to take the “W” in a 4-2 win on Nov. 20, 2009. It also marks the first time the Falcons have won consecutive games at the Yost since their back-to-back away wins on March 4, 2000 and Jan. 25, 2002.

SECOND YEAR - SECOND HALF SENSATIONS
It may have taken a bit of time, but the sophomore class is starting to heat up in the second half of the season for the BGSU Falcons. After the first 18 games of the 2009-10 season, the sophomore class had only tallied one goal and one assist on the season. However, since Jan. 2 they have exploded for five goals and five assists - 10 points - in eight games. Cameron Sinclair and Brennan Vargas both have 2-1--3 lines in that time while James McIntosh has also chipped in with a goal and pair of assists.

For more information, download the entire set of media notes located at the top of the page.

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