Hockey To Face Ferris State in Final Road Series of Regular Season

Bowling Green Falcons (13-14-2, 11-10-1 WCHA)
vs.
Ferris State Bulldogs (8-15-4, 7-10-3 WCHA)

GAME INFORMATION	Friday, Jan. 27, 8:37 p.m. ET Saturday, Jan. 28, 7:07 p.m. ET
LOCATION	Big Rapids, Mich. (Ewigleben Arena)
RADIO	Falcon Radio Network (Evan Pivnick)
LIVE STATS	FerrisStateBulldogs.com
WATCH ONLINE	WCHA.tv
LISTEN ONLINE	BGSUFalcons.com
GAME NOTES	Bowling Green

>>FALCONS ON TAP
The Bowling Green hockey program will travel to Big Rapids, Mich. this weekend for its final road series of the regular season for WCHA play against Ferris State. Friday's 8:37 p.m. start will be nationally televised on the American Sports Network, while Saturday's game will feature a standard 7:07 p.m. puck drop.

>>VERSUS FERRIS STATE
All-time, Bowling Green holds a 61-58-11 advantage over Ferris State. The Falcons have won six of the last eight matchups against the Bulldogs, including a sweep last season in a combined score of 10-5. Earlier this season, the Falcons split with the Bulldogs at the Slater Family Ice Arena. On Friday, the Falcons came out with a big 4-1 win on Friday night, although Ferris State rebounded with a 3-1 final on Saturday. It was the only loss the Falcons suffered the entire month of November. Tyler Spezia, Matt Pohlkamp, Alec Rauhauser, and Mitch McLain all appeared on the box score Friday night, while all four marked multi-point nights including a career-high three-point performance by freshman Rauhauser. Freshman Lukas Craggs was the lone goal-scorer for the Falcons Saturday night.

Last season in Friday's 4-3 win, three players accounted for the Falcons' four goals, and eight posted at least one point, while four earned multiple points, including Stephen Baylis. The Falcons came out with a strong 6-2 victory on Saturday, in which five players scored a goal and 11 earned at least one point, including Mitch McLain, who had scored two goals for the first time in his career. Bowling Green also returns eight of the 10 goal-scorers from last years' series.

>>SHORT ON SHOTS
On Saturday evening against Alaska, the third period featured just two shots on goal from the Nanooks, making it the third time this season that the Falcons have held its opponent to just two shots on goal through 20:00 of play. Others included the third period against Bemidji State (Jan. 6) and second period against Alaska Anchorage (Nov. 26). Similarly, the Falcons held Ferris State to just four shots on goal on Nov. 4. In the Friday night 4-1 win earlier this season, Bowling Green held the Bulldogs to 4, 5 and 6 shots in each period, for 15 shots against in the game, which is the second-lowest of the season.

>>NELL IN NET
With 19 saves on the night, junior goaltender Chris Nell marked his second-highest save percentage of the season with a .950, in the Falcons 2-1 overtime win against Alaska. The Green Bay, Wis. native was critical in keeping the Falcons in the game, including a weekend-high of 12 saves in the opening period of play. On the weekend, Nell tended the net for 122:10 minutes of play, had four goals against and made a total of 40 saves with a .909 save percentage.

>>FLYING IN THE LEAGUE
Junior defenseman Mark Friedman currently leads all defensemen in the WCHA with 0.68 points per game, while the 19 points in 28 games ranks him 30th nationally, jumping up seven spots in the rankings from last week.

Additionally, fellow junior Mitch McLain is second in the conference with 1.00 points per game as well as second overall with 0.57 goals per game average.
As a team, the Falcons rank third overall in the WCHA with its 2.97 goals per game average. The offensive mark is third to Lake Superior State's 3.04 goals per game average, and league-leading Minnesota State's 3.08.

>>CAPTAIN'S ADVANTAGE
Senior caption Sean Walker recently earned his team-leading fifth power play goal of the year. In his career, Walker has now earned 10 goals with the man-advantage, only trailing fellow senior Kevin Dufour's 12 career power play goals. The duo accounts for nearly half of the career power play goals on the Bowling Green squad, which is 51 since the start of the 2013-14 season.

>>MCLAIN'S POINT-STREAK
Junior Mitch McLain entered the weekend against Alaska on a six game point streak. The Baxter, Minn. native then notched his team-leading 16th goal of the season for the Falcons on Friday night in the Slater Family Ice Arena to extend his point-streak to seven consecutive games, making it every game since Dec. 17 at Alaska Fairbanks that McLain appeared on the box score. The Falcons are now 8-2-1 when McLain scores a goal.

McLain also marked a multi-point night on Friday evening after scoring on the power play in the second period, in addition to assisting in John Schilling's goal late in the third. The performance marked McLain's seventh multi-point effort of the season, and 13th of his career.

>>RETURNING HOME FOR THE SECOND HALF
Bowling Green had many road series to kick off the season, and didn't have its first full home series until the first weekend of November. In the fall, Bowling Green went 7-7-0 on the road, and 3-4-2 at home although the second half will balance out the home atmosphere for the Falcons.

The second half of the season will present ample home ice advantage for the Falcons, as nine of the 13 regular season matchups of the second half will take place at the Slater Family Ice Arena, including all five games of February taking place at home.

>>CENTURY MEN
Senior Sean Walker played in his 148th career game Saturday against Alaska. Walker is now the active career leader for the Bowling Green squad, along with fellow senior Matt Pohlkamp, who has also appeared in 147 games. The pair leads six current Falcons who have 100+ games of collegiate experience, including Pierre-Luc Mercier (145), Kevin Dufour (142) and Mark Friedman (109).

The most recent addition to the century men is junior Tyler Spezia, who hit his 100-game mark two week's back in Mankato and is now at 102 games played. Spezia joins fellow junior Mitch McLain who clocked ice time in his 108th game on Saturday against Alaska.

>>ICE ARENA 50^TH CELEBRATION
The Ice Arena is turning 50 and to honor the historic mark, numerous activities are scheduled and planned for the weekend of Feb. 10-12, 2017. Highlighting the weekend will be the Bowling Green hockey game as they host Mercyhurst in non-conference action on Feb. 11. In addition to current "Voice of the Falcons" Evan Pivnick, legendary NHL broadcaster Mike "Doc" Emrick will join Pivnick on air for the call of the Falcons hockey game.

>>PRESEASON POLLS PEG BOWLING GREEN
Bowling Green was picked to finish first in the WCHA by both the coaches' and media preseason polls, in addition to being ranked No. 14 in the country by USCHO.com. It is just the second time in school history that Bowling Green has been ranked in the first USCHO.com poll of the year since the poll was initiated for the 1997-98 season, and improved from a No. 16 ranking at the start of the 2015-16 campaign. The Falcons did earn votes (but not enough to be ranked) in the USCHO.com preseason polls in 2014 (11 votes), 2013 (4 votes), 2008 (3 votes), 2005 (1 vote), 2004 (1 vote), 1999 (1 vote) and 1997 (3 votes). Bowling Green is also ranked No. 15 in the first USA Today/USA Hockey Magazine poll of the season. This is the Falcons first appearance in the poll since receiving a No. 13 ranking on 12/14/15.

>>ALL-CONFERENCE ACTION
Multiple Falcons were named for preseason All-WCHA, including junior Mark Friedman and goaltender Chris Nell. Senior Sean Walker also received votes for the Preseason All-WCHA Team, while Friedman and Nell joined Walker in Bowling Green upperclassmen that received votes for Preseason WCHA Player of the Year. Three Falcon freshmen were recognized for the Preseason WCHA Rookie of the Year award, in defenseman Alec Rauhauser and forwards Frederic Letourneau and Casey Linkenheld.

>>FALCONS IN THE BIG TIME
In addition to three current NHL draftees on the Falcons roster (Ryan Bednard, Mark Friedman, and Adam Smith), two Falcon alumni have made NHL rosters for the 2016-17 campaign. Goaltender Andrew Hammond has begun his third season with the Ottawa Senators, after recording the most wins to start a career by going 20-1-2 in his first 23 NHL games. The second Falcon alum in the big time is Kevin Bieksa, who is beginning his second season with the Anaheim Ducks after an eight-year stint with the Vancouver Canucks.

>>SEEING 20/20
With a 22-14-6 record over the 2015-16 campaign, the Falcons posted back-to-back 20+ win seasons for the first time in 20 years. With 23 wins during the 2014-15 season, Bowling Green posted the 19th 20-win season in program history, followed by the 20th 20-win season with the 22 victories last year. Historically, Bowling Green has marked five 30-win seasons, although the 2014-15 season was the first time the team won 20 games since the 1995-96 campaign has been on a roll ever since.

>>RETURNING OFFENSE TO THE ICE
Despite losing the leading scorer from last season in Mark Cooper (16 goals), the Falcons return a vast majority of their offensive firepower for this season. Nine of the next top-11 scorers on the Falcons squad return to the ice for the 2016-17 season, including seniors Matt Pohlkamp (25 goals) and Kevin Dufour (36 goals). All told, Bowling Green returns 18 of the 25 players who scored at least one point last season.

>>EVAN PIVNICK "THE VOICE" ON THE MIC
All games this season can be heard on the radio by tuning into the Falcon Radio Network and can be heard globally on www.bgsufalcons.com and WBGUFM.com. Evan Pivnick recently reached his 100th game mark of calling for the Falcons, and will continue to provide top-notch play-by-play commentary throughout the season. The pregame show will air 30 minutes prior to the opening face-off.

>>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.

>>LIVE STATS
Live stats for all Bowling Green home games and select road matchups are available on the BGSU website at BGSUFalcons.com. Navigate to the hockey schedule for links to all available ways to follow the action while the Falcons are both at home and on the road.

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