No. 15 Falcons Host Northern Michigan For Thanksgiving Weekend Special

#15 Bowling Green Falcons (7-3-3, 4-2-2 WCHA)
vs.
Northern Michigan (4-3-5, 3-2-3 WCHA)

GAME INFORMATION	Friday, Nov. 27 / 7:07 pm ET
LOCATION	Bowling Green, Ohio (BGSU Ice Arena)
TELEVISION	BCSN (Greg Franke) / Tape Delay
RADIO	WBGU 88.1 FM (Evan Pivnick)
LIVE STATS	BGSUFalcons.com
WATCH ONLINE	WCHA.tv
LISTEN ONLINE	BGSUFalcons.com
GAME NOTES	BGSU \| Northern Michigan \| WCHA

#15 Bowling Green Falcons (7-3-3, 4-2-2 WCHA)
vs.
Northern Michigan (4-3-5, 3-2-3 WCHA)

GAME INFORMATION	Saturday, Nov. 28 / 7:07 pm ET
LOCATION	Bowling Green, Ohio (BGSU Ice Arena)
TELEVISION	BCSN (Greg Franke)
RADIO	WBGU 88.1 FM (Evan Pivnick)
LIVE STATS	BGSUFalcons.com
WATCH ONLINE	WCHA.tv
LISTEN ONLINE	BGSUFalcons.com
GAME NOTES	BGSU \| Northern Michigan \| WCHA

What They Are Saying
"Northern Michigan is a very difficult team to play against. They bring it all the time. It's a very difficult series and they play just as well on the road as they do at home. We're excited to be playing at home, but we are playing an opponent who has no problem going on the road." BGSU Head Coach Chris Bergeron

Home Ice
BGSU is unbeaten in its last nine games at the BGSU Ice Arena (second longest active streak in the country) with a record of 3-0-2 this year. Over the past 19 contests at the Madhouse on Mercer, Bowling Green is 13-3-3. The current streak is the longest for Bowling Green in 20 years, since a 19-0-1 stretch during the 1994-95 and 1995-96 seasons. Listed below are the longest active home ice win streaks in Division I college hockey.

Century Men
Redshirt senior Dajon Mingo played in his 100th career game on Oct. 9 against Ohio State. He has now played in 107 career games and joins classmates Ben Murphy (129 games) and Mark Cooper (127 games) as the three current Falcons who have 100+ games of collegiate experience. Three other Falcons have now reached 90-or-more games played and two others have at least 80 games of experience.

Fantastic Freshmen
Four Falcon freshmen have notched their first career points this year, while all six have seen their first collegiate action. John Schilling leads the group with five points (two goals, three assists). Chris Pohlkamp scored his first collegiate goal against Alaska Anchorage and now has two points. Forward Shane Bednard has three assists, while defenseman Connor McDonald has recorded one. Forward Joe McKeown saw his first collegiate action in a 4-2 win at Canisius. Stephen Baylis played his first two career games against Lake Superior State.

Passing A Hall Of Famer
Head coach Chris Bergeron owns 87 wins in his six-year career at Bowling Green. With BGSU's 3-2 win on Nov. 14, Bergeron moved past BGSU Athletics Hall of Famer Scott Paluch into fourth place on the all-time coaching wins list as a Falcon. He now trails only Buddy Powers (135 wins), Ron Mason (160) and Jerry York (342). Bergeron is 48-29-14 since the start of the 2013-14 season.

Nell And Void
Sophomore goalie Chris Nell has given up just 14 goals in nine starts this season, including two or fewer in seven of the nine. He ranks fifth nationally in save percentage (.948) and sixth in goals against average (1.46). With over 1,000 career minutes, Nell now qualifies as BGSU's all-time leader in both categories. He has recorded two shutouts among his seven starts (4-2-3) this season. In just 20 career starts, Nell has earned five shutouts and is in sole possession of third place on the all-time BGSU shutouts list. He needs only two more to match the school record of seven, held jointly by Tyler Masters (1999-03) and Andrew Hammond (2010-13).

Offensive Spark
Junior forward Matt Pohlkamp had a career night on Saturday against Alabama-Huntsville. He scored BGSU's first two goals and assisted on two others in the 4-3 victory over the Chargers. The four-point game is a career-best for Pohlkamp and is the first four-point game by a Falcon since Ryan Carpenter did it during a 5-2 win over Michigan Tech on March 15, 2014. That win sent Bowling Green to the 2014 WCHA Final Five. Pohlkamp's two goals are a season- and career-best, and his two assists are also a season high.

The Falcon Flyer
Sophomore defenseman Mark Friedman, a third round draft pick of the Philadelphia Flyers, has been an anchor defensively for the Falcons this year. During the team's most recent weekend series against Alabama Huntsville, Friedman had a team-high seven blocks, recorded eight shots on goal and led the Falcons with three assists, all of which came on the power play. Friedman has now scored at least one point in three consecutive games heading into the weekend.

The Burke Wall
In his 3-2 win at Michigan Tech, senior goalie Tommy Burke recorded his 36th career victory. He is in sole possession of 10th place all-time on the BGSU goalie leaderboard and is just one win shy of Al Sarachman (1973-77) for ninth. Gary Kruzich (1983-87) is the all-time Falcon goalie leader with 88 career wins. Burke is 3-1-0 during the 2015-16 season.

The NHL Calls
Bowling Green has two active alumni in the NHL, as well as one head coach. Defenseman Kevin Bieksa has played in all of the first 21 games for the Anaheim Ducks, while goalie Andrew Hammond, who took the Ottawa Senators on a wild ride a year ago, now has 27 career decisions (as of Nov. 23, 2015) with just one career loss. Buffalo Sabres' first year head coach Dan Bylsma was just inducted in the BGSU Athletics Hall of Fame on Oct. 9 and is a Stanley Cup winner in Pittsburgh as well as having coached the 2014 US Winter Olympic team.

Seeing 20-20
With 23 wins during the 2014-15 season, Bowling Green posted the 19th 20-win season in program history, a mark with includes five 30-win seasons. It is the first time the team won 20 games since the 1995-96 campaign. At 7-3-3, the Falcons are off to a strong start in an effort to earn back-to-back 20-win seasons for the first time since 1994-95 and 1995-96.

Here For The Long Haul
Bowling Green head coach Chris Bergeron signed a five-year contract extension following the 2014-15 season that will keep him at the helm of the Falcons through the 2022-23 season. Bergeron, who is in his sixth season at BGSU, has compiled 80 wins through his first five seasons and has led the Falcons to a win total increase in each of those campaigns. That five-year run of improved win totals is a first in team history. The Falcons' 23 wins in 2014-15 were the most for BGSU in 19 years, since they won 26 in 1995-96. Bergeron has also led the Falcons to at least one best-of-three postseason series victory in each of the last five seasons. BGSU is the only program in the country to accomplish this feat.

Road Warriors
BGSU went 11-6-4 away from the BGSU Ice Arena in 2014-15. The team had not won more than 11 games away from home since the 1987-88 team posted 16 victories. The Falcons are already 4-3-1 on the road in 2015-16, and their next road trip is to Bemidji, Minn. to face Bemidji State on Dec. 11 and 12.

Mr. October Turns It On In November
Junior Kevin Dufour is off to a quick start for the second consecutive year. A year ago, Dufour scored a goal in each of the first six games of the season and posted eight of his 13 goals in the month of October. This year, he scored four times in six October games. Dufour carried the hot streak into November this year, posting three more goals in seven games. He is the team leader with seven and is sixth in the WCHA with 0.54 goals per game. His also leads the BGSU squad with a +7 on-ice rating and is second with nine points.

#MadhouseOnMercer
With increased success, the BGSU Ice Arena has seen more and more fans line up for BG hockey games. A year ago, Bowling Green played in front of crowds exceeding 3,000 fans four times and the program averaged 2,601 fans per game, an increase of almost 600 per game over the 2,022 in 2013-14. This year, BGSU had 3,022 fans for the home opener against Ohio State and has an average home attendance of 2,698 through the first five games.

Ohio's Hockey Town
Wallethub.com has named Bowling Green the top hockey city in Ohio and 18th out of 74 cities nationally that host either an NHL or NCAA Division I team. The rankings were a combination of several factors, including team performance, ticket prices, arena accessibility and friendliness/engagement of the fans. Each area was weighted differently, and some were comprised of a three-year average. "The Madhouse on Mercer" housed an average of 2,601 fans per game during the 2014-15 season. A total of 5,353 fans broke the BGSU Ice Arena attendance record Nov. 14, 2014 when the Falcons hosted Ohio State.

The Captain And His Assistants
Bowling Green has named its captain and assistant captains for the 2015-2016 season. Junior defenseman Sean Walker will serve as the Falcons' captain, while senior forwards Mark Cooper and Brent Tate will compete as the team's assistant captains. Both Cooper and Tate are in the role for the second consecutive season. The trio provided 51 points for the Falcons during the 2014-2015 season. They scored 20 goals and combined for a +11 on-ice rating. During BGSU's three-game postseason run, the three posted three goals and totaled eight points as the Falcons won a best-of-three playoff series for the fifth consecutive year.

Taking Over Toledo
The BGSU hockey team has once again partnered with the ECHL's Toledo Walleye to feature the Falcons at Toledo's Huntington Center. This year, the Falcons will host the Western Michigan Broncos on Dec. 30 at 5:00 p.m. in the first game of a doubleheader with the Walleye. BGSU last skated in the Huntington Center during the 2009-10 season against Michigan. The Falcons also played in Toledo last season, when they earned a 2-2 tie against No. 19 Robert Morris in the program's first outdoor game, at the Walleye's Winterfest.

Evan Pivnick "The Voice" On The Mic
All games this season can be heard on the radio by tuning into 88.1 WBGU-FM. Evan Pivnick will provide the play-by-play commentary throughout the season. The pregame show will air 30 minutes prior to the opening face-off. The broadcast can be heard globally on www.bgsufalcons.com and WBGUFM.com.

WCHA.TV
In partnership with industry leader Stretch Internet, WCHA.tv will allow fans to watch all 10 league teams and up to 196 games during the 2015-16 season on just about any device – computer, tablet, phone and many Smart TVs – with a responsive experience customized for that particular medium. High-quality HD streams, when available from the originating arena, will be viewable in multiple screen layout options (including picture-in-picture, multi-view format to watch up to four games simultaneously and full-screen video). For more information, visit WCHA.tv.

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