Hockey To Host Alaska for WCHA Showdown

Friday, October 27

Bowling Green, Ohio

7:37PM

Bowling Green State University

Alaska

October 24, 2017 | Ice Hockey

By: Jenna Jorgensen (Assistant Director of Athletic Communications)

Bowling Green Falcons (2-3-0, 1-1-0 WCHA)
vs.
Alaska (2-3-1, 2-0-0 WCHA)

GAME INFORMATION	Friday, Oct. 27, 7:37 p.m. ET Saturday, Oct. 28, 7:07 p.m. ET
LOCATION	Bowling Green, Ohio (Slater Family Ice Arena)
RADIO	Falcon Radio Network (Ryan Vallon)
LIVE STATS	BGSUFalcons.com
LISTEN ONLINE	BGSUFalcons.com
GAME NOTES	Bowling Green
WATCH ONLINE	WCHA.tv

>>FALCONS ON TAP

Bowling Green will continue Western Collegiate Hockey Association action by hosting Alaska, beginning at 7:37 p.m. at the Slater Family Ice Arena on Friday, Oct. 27.
The Falcons will then host the Nanooks for the series finale on Saturday, Oct. 28 at 7:07 p.m.

>>FRIDAY'S PROMOTIONS

Friday's game will be Youth Hockey Night at the Slater Family Ice Arena, highlighting local youth hockey programs throughout the game.
Head Coach Chris Bergeron will be hosting Chalk Talk for all season ticket holders and Falcon Club members in the Center Ice Lounge of the Slater Family Ice Arena, beginning at 6:50 p.m.

>>SATURDAY'S PROMOTIONS

Saturday will be Fan Appreciation Night, which will feature $1 general admission tickets purchased by 5 p.m. on Friday. There will also be $1 pop, popcorn and cookies from 6-8pm at the Slater Family Ice Arena concession stand.
Be sure to stick around postgame as the Bowling Green hockey program will be hosting a postgame skate with the Falcons for 30 minutes following the game. Skate rental will be available for $3 from the Pro Shop.
For students, there will be a We Are 1 Team pregame social, while the student section theme will be Halloween costume attire.

>>VERSUS ALASKA

All-time, Bowling Green holds a narrow advantage over the Nanooks by a 29-28-8 margin.
Bowling Green most recently faced Alaska on Jan. 20-21, 2017 at home; a series in which the teams split after a 3-2 win by the Nanooks on Friday was followed by a 2-1 overtime Falcon victory on Saturday.
Very level in recent years, the pair of conference rivals have posted a Bowling Green record of 9-8-3 in Coach Bergeron's seven years with the program, including a record of 3-3-0 over the last two seasons.
This weekend's series will be the only matchup between the conference rivals, as the Falcons do not travel to Fairbanks this season.
Alaska officially opened its 2017-18 season by hosting Air Force, who they lost and tied to, before being swept on the road by St. Cloud by scores of 6-3 and 5-4. The Nanooks then opened WCHA play with a home-and-home series against Alaska Anchorage this past weekend. With victories of 6-2 and 3-2 over the Seawolves, Alaska is now 2-0-0 in WCHA action heading into the Slater Family Ice Arena.

>>STATISTICAL STANDOUTS

Five Falcons have now tallied their first career goals thus far in the season, most recently being freshman Max Johnson, who put the Falcons up 4-0 over Minnesota State on Saturday evening on the power play. Other Falcons who have tallied their first career goals this season include freshmen Cameron Wright, Brandon Kruse, and Connor Ford, in addition to junior Shane Bednard.
Both goaltenders are having strong performances in the net, as sophomore Ryan Bednard sits 24th in the country with a 2.35 goals against average, while freshman Eric Dop ranks 30th by averaging 2.50 goals against. Additionally, Dop is also ranked 23rd nationally with a save percentage of .919, while Bednard narrowly trails with a .918 save percentage to sit 27th in the country.
As he scored an empty net goal on Saturday night to make it a 5-2 victory for the Falcons, senior Brett D'Andrea earned his 15 career goal in the Orange and Brown. The Falcons are undefeated when the Marysville, Mich. native scores, as they hold a 13-0-2 all-time record when he does.
After notching his first career goal on Saturday night, freshman Max Johnson now holds five points on the season by one goal and four assists. The 1.00 points per game average ranks Johnson 10th nationally of all rookies in Division I hockey.
Defensively, sophomore Alec Rauhauser also averages 0.80 points per game, which ranks him 33rd in the nation for all defenseman, as well as fifth overall in the WCHA.
Standing out on the scoresheet was the Falcons underclassmen, who tallied 12 of the Falcons 14 points on the weekend, while 10 different players earned at least one point in the WCHA opening series.
Sophomore Lukas Craggs opened the scoring on Saturday evening for the Falcons, by producing two goals in a 20 second span. It was the fastest pair of goals since Craggs joined the program, although is still 10 seconds short of ranking in the top-3 fastest pair of goals by a single player in program history.

>>EYES ON CENTURY MEN

Senior Mitch McLain: 125 games played, 35 goals – 35 assists – 70 points
Senior Tyler Spezia: 119 games played, 24 goals – 32 assists – 56 points
Senior Brett D'Andrea: 95 games played, 15 goals – 21 assists – 36 points
Junior Connor McDonald: 85 games played, 2 goals – 12 assists – 14 points
Junior Chris Pohlkamp: 83 games played, 1 goal – 16 assists – 17 points
Junior John Schilling: 80 games played, 9 goals – 14 assists – 23 points

>>STARTING OFF ON THE WRIGHT FOOT

Freshman Cameron Wright is making an early offensive impact, as he leads the Bowling Green squad with three goals and three assists for six points, and to average 1.20 points per game, which ranks sixth overall in Division I Men's Hockey for rookie players.
On his way to earning six points through five games played, Wright currently extends his point streak to five straight games.
After marking his first career goal in his first collegiate game, Wright was named WCHA Rookie of the week. The Newmarket, Ontario native posted two goals and one assist in the first week's three games, in addition to tallying a team-leading nine shots on goal.
In the second week of action, Wright continued to be an offensive force as he tallied the lone goal for the Falcons on Friday night against No. 12/14 Minnesota State to tie the game at 1-1 midway through the second period. The forward then earned his first career multi-point game when he notched two assists in the Falcons 5-2 victory on Saturday night, as he had a hand in fellow freshman Max Johnson's first career goal to put the Falcons up 4-0 over the Mavericks.

>>PRESEASON POLLS PEG BOWLING GREEN

The Bowling Green hockey program was voted to finish fourth overall in both the 2017 Mankato Free Press WCHA Coaches' and the UAHhockey.com WCHA Media preseason polls.
For the upcoming season, the Falcons return nine of 12 forwards who appeared in the WCHA Championship, as well as five of seven defensemen for the 2017-18 campaign, resulting in Bowling Green garnering 90 points in the coaches' preseason poll. The Falcons also had one vote for the top finish on the year in the media preseason poll.
Senior forward Mitch McLain was voted to Preseason All-WCHA First Team honors by both the coaches and media, in addition to receiving votes for Preseason WCHA Player of the Year by the media.
Also receiving votes for Preseason All-WCHA Teams were senior forward Tyler Spezia and sophomore defenseman Alec Rauhauser.

>>2017-18 FALCON HOCKEY OUTLOOK

The Falcons return nine of 12 forwards who appeared in the WCHA Championship, in addition to five of seven defensemen for the 2017-18 campaign. In goal, the Falcons will return Florida Panthers draftee Ryan Bednard, who marked a 2.70 GAA and .882 save percentage.
Bowling Green adds a class of nine freshmen to the 2017-18 squad, including two goaltenders, two defensemen and five forwards.
The Falcons return 2016-17 leading scorer in senior forward Mitch McLain, who tallied 17 goals and 16 assists for 33 points and will be leading as the Falcons captain for the 2017-18 campaign. A native of Baxter, Minn., McLain also led the team on the ice with a plus-19 rating.
By registering 30 points last season, the Falcons also return its third highest scorer in senior forward Tyler Spezia, who will serve as the team's assistant captain.
As a unit, the Falcons return four players who tallied 20 or more points last season, and nine players who registered double-digit points.

>>RETURNING FROM A RECORD YEAR

With an overall record of 21-18-2, the Falcons marked its third consecutive 20+ win season and fourth straight winning season. Bowling Green had records of 22-14-6 in the 2015-16 campaign, following a 23-11-5 record in the 2014-15 season. Last year was the 21^st season that the Falcons have tallied a 20-plus win season.
The Falcons went on a seven-game win streak entering the WCHA Championship, the longest of Coach Bergeron's career and longest of the Bowling Green hockey team since the 1987-88 campaign; a year in which the team clinched its last conference title and advanced to the NCAA Tournament.
By competing in the WCHA Championship in March, it marked Bowling Green's first conference championship appearance since 1988.
The WCHA saw a total of nine hat tricks on the year, with Bowling Green accounting for four of those. Mitch McLain marked two on the year, posting the two three-goal performances in a three week span.
Leading the Falcons offensively was Mitch McLain. On the season, McLain earned a total of six conference awards (2x POTM, 3x POTW, All-WCHA First Team), in addition to being named a WCHA Scholar-Athlete and to WCHA All-Academic honors.
Bowling Green saw extensive time in the penalty box, and ranked ninth in the nation with a total of 631 minutes for 15.4 minutes per game. The Falcons were one of five WCHA schools in the top ten in the category.
Bowling Green accumulated 10 WCHA Players of the Week, three WCHA Players of the Month, WCHA Championship Third Star of the Game, NCAA Hockey No. 1 Star of the Week, No. 4 spot on SportCenter's Top 10 Plays of the Night over the course of the 2016-17 season.

>>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. Falcon Hockey play-by-play broadcaster Ryan Vallon will begin the pregame show 30 minutes prior to the opening face-off, and can also be heard on WTOD/WQQO-HD2 (Talk Radio 100.7) and WLQR-FM (106.5 The Ticket).

>>WCHA.tv

For as low as 60¢ per game for the 2017-18 season, Bowling Green hockey fans can watch all regular season home games as well as all Western Collegiate Hockey Association matchups live or on-demand with WCHA.tv – the Association's official online streaming platform. WCHA.tv provides fans with high-quality, HD broadcasts (when available from the originating arena) on multiple platforms, including – new for this season – TV-connected devices via custom apps on Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Android TV.
A WCHA.tv Season Pass would provide Bowling Green hockey fans 32 regular season games, including 14 of the team's 18 road matchups. It would also include all of the Falcons' action in the 2018 WCHA Playoffs. Bowling Green's first official WCHA.tv broadcast will be on Friday, Oct. 13 as the team hosts Michigan State at 7:37 p.m.

>>LIVE STATS

Live stats for all Bowling Green home games and 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.

>>FOLLOW THE FALCONS