Falcons Host Bemidji State in Televised Series This Weekend

Bowling Green Falcons (10-11-2, 8-7-1 WCHA)
vs.
No. 17 Bemidji State (14-7-3, 14-2-2 WCHA)

GAME INFORMATION	Thursday, Jan. 5, 7:07 p.m. ET Friday, Jan. 6, 8:37 p.m. ET
LOCATION	Bowling Green, Ohio (Slater Family Ice Arena)
RADIO	Falcon Radio Network (Evan Pivnick)
LIVE STATS	BGSUFalcons.com
WATCH ONLINE	WCHA.tv
LISTEN ONLINE	BGSUFalcons.com
GAME NOTES	Bowling Green

>>FALCONS ON TAP
Bowling Green will host Bemidji State Thursday and Friday evening for Western Collegiate Hockey Association play. Thursday's 7:07 p.m. start will be broadcast on BCSN, while Friday's 8:37 p.m. start will be broadcast on the American Sports Network.

>>SCOUTING THE BEAVERS
The Beavers enter the weekend leading the WCHA with a 14-7-3 record overall and are 14-2-2 in conference action. Most recently, Bemidji State split the weekend at Alaska Anchorage by falling to the Seawolves 4-1 on Friday, prior to earning a narrow win of 1-0 on Saturday. Overall, senior Phillip Marinaccio leads the team with 19 points, while senior Brendan Harms trails with 16, although junior Gerry Fitzgerald has notched three of the team's 14 game-winning goals thus far. Junior Michael Bitzer has been dominate in goal, starting all 23 games played this season and boasts a conference-leading .938 save percentage with a 1.47 goals against average through 1389:26 minutes played.

>>VERSUS BEMIDJI STATE
The Falcons were swept by the Beavers earlier this season on the road, although Bowling Green still holds the all-time advantage by a 8-6-1 margin. While in Bemidji, Minn., Stephen Baylis notched the lone goal for the Falcons Friday evening, while Mitch McLain scored his first shorthanded goal of the season on Saturday night.

>>LAST WEEK'S STATS
For the 10th time this year, the Falcons held its opponent scoreless on the power play when they hosted RIT at the Huntington Center in non-conference play, en route to the team's second shutout on the year. Bowling Green is now 6-3-1 when it holds its opponents scoreless with the man-advantage.

>>NELL IN NET
In the 3-0 victory against RIT, junior goaltender Chris Nell set a school record with his eighth career shutout.

While between the pipes for Bowling Green, Nell was challenged with 17 shots on goal by the Tigers, and remained steadfast though the 60:00 of action. With his first shutout of the season and eighth in his career, the Green Bay, Wis. native broke a three-way tie for first in the category of total career shutouts. Nell pushed Tyler Masters (1999-03) and current NHL-er Andrew Hammond (2010-13) down to second all-time, who each hold seven career shutouts in their time in the Orange and Brown.

Nell is also the current leader in the career record book with his 2.16 goals against average and .919 save percentage through his 68 games played.

>>D'ANDREA'S DOUBLE POINTS
Shortly before closing out the first period against RIT, junior Brett D'Andrea was able to capitalize on the Bowling Green power play by netting his fifth of the year. D'Andrea was able pick up the rebound of a shot taken by senior Kevin Dufour to score the Falcons second of the period.

The non-conference foes were then held scoreless until midway through the final stanza of play, before D'Andrea passed the puck up the boards to sophomore Stephen Baylis. Baylis then fed the puck from behind the net to freshman Frederic Letourneau, who picked up the feed before taking a quick shot and burying the puck in the top right corner of the net for his fifth goal of the season.

With the assist on Letourneau's goal, D'Andrea was able to earn his third multi-point night of the season and fourth in his career in Friday's 3-0 victory. The Falcons have also gone undefeated in games in which D'Andrea has scored a goal (3-0-2) this season.

>>MOOSE MCLAIN
It was 11:19 into the game when junior Mitch McLain notched his team-leading 12th goal of the season against RIT by coming in down low and taking a quick shot in the slot in 4-on-4 play to give Bowling Green the lead. The Falcons are now 6-0-1 when the Baxter, Minn. native scores a goal, and it is McLain's second consecutive game-winning goal effort.

With his team-leading 12th goal of the season, McLain is currently on a three-game point streak. The Baxter, Minn. native has earned points in 15 of the Falcons 23 games and is third in the WCHA with 1.05 points per game, and second overall in the conference with 0.55 goals per game average.

McLain also marked his second hat trick in a three week span at Lake Superior State, making him the first WCHA skater with multiple hat tricks in the same season since 2011-12. McLain is also on his way to tying the Bowling Green hockey record for most in a single season. Bob Dobek had five hat tricks in a season in the 1973-74 campaign.

>>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 6-6-0 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 remaining 13 regular season matchups will take place at the Slater Family Ice Arena, including all five games of February taking place at home.

>>VERSUS RANKED OPPONENTS
Then-ranked No. 19 Ohio State is the only ranked opponent the Falcons have seen so far this season, and were swept in 5-4 and 6-1 finals. Although the Falcons have not faced them when ranked, Bowling Green has also gone 0-6-0 against No. 17 Bemidji State, No. 14 Western Michigan and the No. 11 Buckeyes throughout the year. The Falcons also hosted Michigan Tech earlier this year, who received votes in this week's USCHO.com poll.

>>CENTURY MEN
Senior Sean Walker played in his 142nd career game Friday against RIT. Walker is now the active career leader for the Bowling Green squad, along with fellow senior Matt Pohlkamp, who has also appeared in 142 games. The pair leads six current Falcons who have 100+ games of collegiate experience, including Pierre-Luc Mercier (140), Kevin Dufour (136) and Mark Friedman (103).

The most recent addition to the century men is junior Mitch McLain, who clocked ice time in his 102nd game Friday night at the Huntington Center. Fellow junior Tyler Spezia tallies 94 career games played, on track to be the next Falcon to hit the century marker.

>>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. Rauhauser also scored his first collegiate goal against the Broncos on Friday night with a power play shot taken from the point.

>>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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