Hockey On A Thursday? Falcons And Seawolves Say Yes!

#18 Bowling Green Falcons (13-7-5, 9-3-4 WCHA)
vs.
Alaska Anchorage Seawolves (9-10-3, 6-8-2 WCHA)

DOLLAR DAY TICKETS PURCHASED IN ADVANCE FOR $1 SELECT CONCESSION ITEMS FOR $1
GAME INFORMATION	Thursday, Jan. 21 / 7:07 pm ET
LOCATION	Bowling Green, Ohio (BGSU Ice Arena)
TELEVISION	BCSN (Greg Franke)
RADIO	WBGU 88.1 FM (Evan Pivnick/Adam Ramos)
LIVE STATS	BGSUFalcons.com
WATCH ONLINE	WCHA.tv
LISTEN ONLINE	BGSUFalcons.com
GAME NOTES	BGSU \| Alaska Anchorage \| WCHA

#18 Bowling Green Falcons (13-7-5, 9-3-4 WCHA)
vs.
Alaska Anchorage Seawolves (9-10-3, 6-8-2 WCHA)

PREGAME CHALK TALK (CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS) POSTGAME AUTOGRAPHS
GAME INFORMATION	Friday, Jan. 22 / 7:07 pm ET
LOCATION	Bowling Green, Ohio (BGSU Ice Arena)
TELEVISION	None
RADIO	WBGU 88.1 FM (Evan Pivnick/Adam Ramos)
LIVE STATS	BGSUFalcons.com
WATCH ONLINE	WCHA.tv
LISTEN ONLINE	BGSUFalcons.com
GAME NOTES	BGSU \| Alaska Anchorage \| WCHA

>>THE WEEK AHEAD

The No. 18 Bowling Green Falcons suffered a difficult 2-1 non-conference loss on Saturday against the Miami Redhawks in their only game last week. Now, the Falcons return to WCHA play at the BGSU Ice Arena against Alaska Anchorage. Bowling Green split a pair of games with UAA in Anchorage to open their WCHA schedule, but BGSU is 4-0-4 this season at home against conference foes. This week's games are on Thursday and Friday with puck drop at 7:07 pm for both contests.

>>ABOUT ALASKA ANCHORAGE
* 9-10-3 overall record
* Tied for eighth in WCHA (6-8-2, 14 points)
* Started season 5-1-1 but is 4-9-2 since
* In January, 1-3 with 16 goals allowed
* UAA has allowed six short-handed goals this season
* Senior Blake Tatchell is tied for sixth in WCHA with 18 points, had three-point game vs BGSU on Oct. 31
* Sophomore Tad Kozun is tied for eighth nationally with six power play goals, has ten goals overall

>>WHAT THEY ARE SAYING
"We've showed signs of playing some pretty good hockey. We've got a goaltender who's on top of his game. The big picture looks pretty good, but we need to find consistency. We're in a good spot from a league championship perspective, but until we start to win these games within striking distance as a legitimate threat to a championship, then we haven't made a step. I like the position we've put ourselves in, we've got our next four games at home, let's see how we do." -- BGSU Head Coach Chris Bergeron

>>HELP IS HERE
BGSU Hockey added two defensemen, both of whom are eligible to play for the Falcons in the second half of the season. Freshmen Jordan Ernst and Adam Smith have both joined the team to battle for playing time in the back end. Ernst most recently played for the Madison Capitols of the USHL and Smith was a member of the Newmarket Hurricanes of the OJHL. The pair have played in all six games since joining the team, and Ernst assisted on a goal for his first career point in a 3-1 win on Friday, Jan. 8 at Lake Superior State.

>>CENTURY MEN
Bowling Green now has six players with over 100 career games. The group is led by seniors Mark Cooper (141 games) and Ben Murphy (140 games), while junior Matt Pohlkamp joined the club on Jan. 3 against Clarkson. His total now stands at 103. The trio was joined by Sean Walker (102 games) and Pierre-Luc Mercier (101 games) earlier this month against Lake Superior State. Brent Tate (100 games) added his name to the list against Miami. Kevin Dufour (97 games) will likely reach 100 before the end of the season.

>>FANTASTIC FRESHMEN
Six Falcon freshmen have notched their first career points this year, while all eight have seen their first collegiate action. They have combined for five goals and 28 points. John Schilling leads the group and is tied for seventh among WCHA rookies with nine points (three goals, six assists). Defenseman Connor McDonald has posted seven assists, and forward Shane Bednard has added four assists. Chris Pohlkamp scored his first collegiate goal against Alaska Anchorage and now has three points. Stephen Baylis, the Bemidji Pioneer WCHA Preseason Newcomer of the Year, missed the first eight games due to NCAA amateurism requirements but posted his first goal against Bemidji State and now has four points. Jordan Ernst posted an assist for his first career point last weekend at Lake Superior State.

>>PASSING A HALL OF FAMER
Head coach Chris Bergeron owns 93 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 54-33-16 since the start of the 2013-14 season.

>>NELL AND VOID
Sophomore goalie Chris Nell has given up just 27 goals in 18 starts (9-4-5) this season. He's allowed two or fewer in 15 of the 18 and never more than three. A WCHA Goaltender of the Year contender, Nell ranks first in the league in goals against average (1.41), save percentage (.946) and shutouts (three). His .639 win percentage is third. Nationally, Nell ranks third in goals against average (.0015 out of second), second in save percentage and tied for tenth in shutouts. In just 30 career starts, Nell has earned six shutouts, third-most in program history. He needs just one more to match the school record of seven, held jointly by Tyler Masters (1999-03) and Andrew Hammond (2010-13).

>>DEFENSE, DEFENSE
Bowling Green is on pace to shatter the program record for fewest goals allowed in a season. The 1975-76 team allowed a program-low 90 goals in 32 games. This year, the Falcons have given up just 46 goals through the first 25 contests. BGSU is on pace to end the regular season with only 70 goals allowed, despite playing 38 games.

>>GONNA NEED A BIGGER BROOM
With 4-1 and 2-0 victories at Bemidji State in their road series on Dec. 11-12, Bowling Green earned its fifth road sweep of the Chris Bergeron era. The first three came at Alabama Huntsville, along with a sweep at Alaska.

>>CAN I GET A BIG MAC WITH THAT?
BGSU freshman defenseman Connor McDonald had a season-long four-game point streak, posting assists in both games of the Minnesota State series, sandwiched between assists in games vs. Northern Michigan and at Bemidji State. McDonald was a team-best +4 on-ice during the critical Minnesota State series and is +8 in the last ten games, which ties him for the overall team lead at +9. He is the only freshman on the team to have played in every game this year and posted his first multi-point game of his career with two assists in the 6-3 win over Clarkson on Jan. 3.

>>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 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, turned around a slow start and has been the team's anchor defensively. Friedman had just two points and was +4 on-ice through the first 10 games of the season. However, over the last 15 games, Friedman has three goals and nine assists and is +5 on-ice for a team-best +9. He leads all WCHA defensemen with 11 assists and is tied for the top spot with 14 points.

>>OVERTIME IS THE RIGHT TIME
Bowling Green has played in eight overtime games through the first 25 contests of the season, and the Falcons are 2-1-5 in games with an extra session. The program record for overtime games in a season is 11, in both the 2003-04 and 1991-92 seasons.

>>DU-FOUR SCORE
Junior forward Kevin Dufour has enjoyed a resurgence since the calendar flipped to 2016. Dufour began the season with seven goals and nine points in Bowling Green's first 12 games but had gone eight consecutive contests without earning a point. Beginning with BGSU's 6-3 victory over Clarkson on Jan. 2, Dufour has posted four points in four games played. Against Miami on Saturday, he scored his first goal since Nov. 20 against Alabama-Huntsville. Dufour is now tied for third on the team with 13 points and is second with eight goals.

>>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 7-5-1 on the road in 2015-16, a pace that would again give them a double-digit road victory total.

>>NHL ALUMS
Three Bowling Green alumni have seen action in the NHL this year and one head coach is also a Falcon. Defenseman Kevin Bieksa has played in each of the Anaheim Ducks' first 44 games (as of Jan. 17, 2016), while goalie Andrew Hammond, who took the Ottawa Senators on a wild ride a year ago, now has 32 career decisions (as of Jan. 17, 2016) with a record of 23-5-0-4. Ryan Carpenter, a member of the San Jose Sharks organization, made his NHL debut on Dec. 12 against the Minnesota Wild, centering the team's fourth line. 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.

>>THE BURKE WALL
In a 6-3 win over Clarkson, senior goalie Tommy Burke recorded his 37th career victory to tie Al Sarachman (1973-77) for ninth place all-time on the BGSU goalie leaderboard. He needs just one more win to tie Tyler Masters (1999-03) for eighth. Gary Kruzich (1983-87) is the all-time Falcon goalie leader with 88 career wins. Burke is 4-3-0 during the 2015-16 season.

>>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 13-7-5, the Falcons are vying 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, 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.

>>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.

>>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.

>>COMING SOON
Bowling Green commit Ryan Bednard was selected in the 2015 National Hockey League Draft. Bednard, a goalie from Macomb, Mich., was picked in the seventh round by the Florida Panthers. He was the 206th overall selection. This marks the second consecutive year in which a BGSU player was drafted by an NHL team, as Mark Friedman went to the Philadelphia Flyers in the third round during the 2014 draft. BGSU had not featured draftees in consecutive seasons since a four-year stretch from 2004-2007. Bednard was a goalie with the NAHL's Johnstown Tomahawks last season and earned a 16-16-5 record with a 2.66 goals against average and a .913 save percentage.

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Players Mentioned

Stephen Baylis

Shane Bednard

Tommy Burke

Mark Cooper

Kevin Dufour

Jordan Ernst

Mark Friedman

Connor McDonald

Pierre-Luc Mercier

Ben Murphy

Chris Nell

Chris Pohlkamp

Matt Pohlkamp

John Schilling

Adam Smith

Brent Tate

Sean Walker

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