No. 14 Falcons Welcome WCHA Leader Minnesota State To The Madhouse

#14 Bowling Green Falcons (9-3-3, 6-2-2 WCHA)
vs.
Minnesota State (8-6-2, 7-1-2 WCHA)

GAME INFORMATION	Friday, Dec. 4 / 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 \| Minnesota State \| WCHA

#15 Bowling Green Falcons (9-3-3, 6-2-2 WCHA)
vs.
Minnesota State (8-6-2, 7-1-2 WCHA)

GAME INFORMATION	Saturday, Dec. 5 / 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 \| Minnesota State \| WCHA

>>WHAT THEY ARE SAYING
"They (Minnesota State) are the standard in the WCHA. They are a team that we're chasing around. We're not going to build it up to be a bigger weekend than any other, but it is a good test for us." -- BGSU Head Coach Chris Bergeron

>>THE USCHO.COM POLL
* BGSU gained 48 votes and jumped one spot to No. 14 in the country.
* The Falcons have been ranked in the USCHO.com top 20 poll every week this year.
* Bowling Green is one of two WCHA schools in the top 20, along with Michigan Tech (tied for No. 17).

>>THE USA TODAY/US HOCKEY MAGAZINE POLL
* With 37 votes, the Falcons re-entered the poll at No. 15.
* BGSU was ranked in the top 15 for four straight weeks in October and early November, peaking at No. 10.
* The Falcons are the only WCHA team ranked in the top 15 and Michigan Tech is the only other conference team receiving votes (with three).

>>THE PAIRWISE
* The PairWise mimics the method of selection for the NCAA Division I men's hockey national tournament, comparing common opponents, head-to-head competition and the RPI.
* BGSU climbed four spots to No. 21 in the PairWise.
* The Falcons peaked at No. 19 this year.
* Michigan Tech is the top ranked WCHA team at No. 19.
* Bowling Green ended No. 16 a year ago and the Falcons were the first team out of the NCAA Tournament.
* This week's opponent, Minnesota State, is No. 24.

>>HOME ICE
BGSU is unbeaten in its last 11 games at the BGSU Ice Arena and has a 5-0-2 record at home this year. Their current streak is tied with Quinnipiac for longest in the country. Over the past 21 contests at the Madhouse on Mercer, Bowling Green is 15-3-3. 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.

>>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 Mark Cooper (131 games) and Ben Murphy (130 games) as the three current Falcons who have 100+ games of collegiate experience. Four other Falcons have now reached 90-or-more games played.

>>FANTASTIC FRESHMEN
Four Falcon freshmen have notched their first career points this year, while all six have seen their first collegiate action. They have combined for three goals and 16 points. John Schilling leads the group with seven points (two goals, five assists). Chris Pohlkamp scored his first collegiate goal against Alaska Anchorage and now has three points. Forward Shane Bednard has four assists, while defenseman Connor McDonald has recorded two. Forward Joe McKeown saw his first collegiate action in a 4-2 win at Canisius. Stephen Baylis has played in each of the past eight games after missing the first seven due to NCAA amateurism requirements.

>>PASSING A HALL OF FAMER
Head coach Chris Bergeron owns 89 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 50-29-14 since the start of the 2013-14 season.

>>NELL AND VOID
Sophomore goalie Chris Nell has given up just 18 goals in 11 starts (6-2-3) this season. He's allowed two or fewer in eight of the 11 and never more than three. He ranks fourth nationally in goals against average (1.55), seventh in save percentage (.940) and leads the WCHA in both categories. Nell is also BGSU's all-time leader in those stats. He has recorded two shutouts this season and, in just 23 career starts, has earned five shutouts. Nell 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 (Nov. 21) 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 playing lights-out on both ends of the ice recently. He has ten blocks during his last four games and has scored points in five straight contests. During BGSU's most recent weekend series against Northern Michigan, Friedman had a team-high three points, recorded two goals on just four shots on goal and scored goals in back-to-back games for the first time in his career.

>>MARK-ED MAN
Sophomore Mark Friedman was named the WCHA Defensive Player of the Week Monday as he scored a goal in each of Bowling Green's wins over Northern Michigan, extending his point scoring streak to five games, and anchored a penalty kill unit that was perfect on the weekend. He entered the weekend with just two career goals but scored on the power play just 2:24 into the first period Friday night, sparking the Falcons to a 2-1 victory over the Wildcats. In Saturday's 4-3 overtime win, Friedman scored a goal that put Bowling Green ahead 2-1 early in the second and then had the only assist on Mitch McLain's shorthanded goal with 5.3 seconds remaining in overtime. He tied for team-high honors with three blocked shots on the weekend and was +3 on-ice over the two games, generating four shots on goal.

>>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.

>>NHL ALUMS
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 24 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. 30, 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 9-3-3, 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.

>>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.

>>THE POWER PLAY
Bowling Green opened the season scoreless on 19 power play chances in their first six games of the season and were just 2-for-34 (5.9 percent) with the man advantage before turning things around. A five-minute major at Michigan Tech turned into a pair of power play goals and the Falcons have now scored on special teams in five straight games and are 8-for-18 (44.4 percent) on the power play during that stretch. BGSU did not score on the power play Saturday against Northern Michigan, but the Falcons did score shorthanded in overtime to win the game.

>>MR. OCTOBER KEEPS IT GOING 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 seventh in the WCHA with 0.47 goals per game. He is second on the BGSU squad with a +5 on-ice rating and 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 2,442 through the first seven 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 LETTERMEN
Bowling Green has named the three players who will wear the "C" and the "A" on their jerseys this year. 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.

>>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 IS LIVE
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.

>>LIVE STATS
Live stats for all BGSU home games are available on the BGSU website at BGSUFalcons.com. Navigate to the hockey schedule for links to all available ways to follow the action.

>>THE BERGERON FACTOR
BGSU Head Coach Chris Bergeron arrived in Bowling Green in 2010-11 and the Falcons won 10 games in his first season at the helm, doubling the team's win total over the previous season. The next year, Bowling Green climbed to 14 wins and then added another win on top of that in 2012-13. During the 2013-14 season, the Falcons improved their win total for the fourth straight season with an 18-victory campaign and BGSU posted 23 wins a year ago. It is the first time in program history that the team has improved its win total in five consecutive seasons.

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