Falcons Host Alabama Huntsville for Senior Night Series

Bowling Green Falcons (15-17-2, 12-13-1 WCHA)
vs.
Alabama Huntsville Chargers (9-20-3, 9-14-3 WCHA)

GAME INFORMATION	Friday, Feb. 24, 7:07 p.m. ET Saturday, Feb. 25, 7:07 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
The Falcons will host Western Collegiate Hockey Association foe Alabama Huntsville for the final series of the regular season. Both Friday and Saturday's matchups are set for a 7:07 p.m. puck drop at the Slater Family Ice Arena.

Friday night will serve as Youth Hockey Night, while on Saturday it will be a Ziggy Point and Greek Challenge event. Friday's Chalk Talk for Falcon Club members and season ticket holders will be hosted by assistant coach Barry Schutte.

Also be sure to be at the rink early on Saturday as it will be Senior Day for the Falcons' five seniors! Show your appreciation for Kevin Dufour, Pierre-Luc Mercier, Matt Pohlkamp, Tomas Sholl, and captain Sean Walker for their four years of dedication to the program with a pre-game on ice recognition session.

>>VERSUS ALABAMA HUNTSVILLE
All-time, Bowling Green holds a 18-4-1 advantage over Alabama Huntsville. Since joining the WCHA, the Falcons have gone 12-2 over the Chargers, while winning nine of the last 10 games in which the conference foes have faced off.

Earlier this season when the Falcons traveled to Huntsville, Ala., Bowling Green swept the Chargers by a combined score of 12-4. 10 different Falcons tallied points in the 8-3 win over the conference foe for the weekend sweep. Both Mitch McLain and Tyler Spezia had four point performances, career-highs for the duo.

Senior Pierre-Luc Mercier marked a two-goal night, while junior Tyler Spezia and sophomore John Schilling also scored for the Falcons. Bowling Green then exploded on Saturday night in an 8-3 victory in which junior Mitch McLain earned his first hat trick on the season. The Falcons marked an astounding six-goal third period with a pair of goals by senior Kevin Dufour, in addition to goals by Spezia, junior Brett D'Andrea and freshman Lukas Craggs.

Last season, Bowling Green swept Alabama Huntsville in November by a combined score of 7-5, while in March the team's split when the Chargers won on Friday in a 7-5 final. The Falcons rebounded on Saturday to take the game in a 5-0 shutout. In the Saturday night win, three returning Falcons scored, including D'Andrea, Schilling and sophomore Stephen Baylis. A native of Ottawa, Ontario, Baylis had a career-high four point night with two goals and two assists on the Chargers.

>>RECAPPING MERCYHURST
On Saturday night, the Bowling Green hockey program broke a three-game scoreless streak when it defeated non-conference foe Mercyhurst in a 3-0 shutout at the Slater Family Ice Arena. The Falcons went 10 periods without scoring a goal before senior Pierre-Luc Mercier marked the game-winner midway through the second period.

The Falcons are now undefeated and 2-0-0 all-time over Mercyhurst with the 3-0 win at home this past weekend. The Falcons and the Lakers have only faced off once prior, taking place in Erie, Pa. on Dec. 28, 2000.

>>LIGHTING THE LAMP
Senior forward Pierre-Luc Mercier netted the game-winner against Mercyhurst, marking his first game-winner of the season. Mercier's goal was also his first goal since a two-goal performance at UAH on Nov. 18, 2016.

Also scoring for the Falcons were juniors Mark Friedman and Tyler Spezia. The pair each scored in the Falcons last victory as well, on Jan. 27 at Ferris State. The goals marked number six of the season for Spezia, and the eighth of the year for defenseman Friedman.

Junior Mitch McLain led the Falcons Saturday night by topping the box score with a +2 rating and four shots on goal.

>>NELL IN NET
With the 3-0 victory against the Lakers, junior goaltender Chris Nell marked his ninth career shutout and second of the season. Both of Nell's shutouts came against Atlantic Hockey rivals, and extended his school-record results. The Green Bay, Wis. native currently holds the most shutouts in program history with nine, and leads second-place goaltenders Tyler Masters and Andrew Hammond, who each earned seven in their time with the Falcons.

Nell also leads the Bowling Green record book in the career save percentage and goals against average categories. The junior holds a program-leading 2.14 goals against average and .919 save percentage through 77 career games played.

>>SHOOTING PRACTICE
Bowling Green tallied 30 or more shots on goal for the 18th time this season when it marked 32 against Mercyhurst Saturday night. In comparison, the Falcons have only sacrificed more than 30 shots on goal to its opponent on eight occasions this year. Against Mercyhurst, Bowling Green exploded in the second period with 17 shots on goal, making it the second-most of the season in a 20:00 span (18 vs. Alaska, 18 vs. Bemidji State).

>>FLYING IN THE LEAGUE
As a team, the Falcons rank third overall in the WCHA with its 2.71 goals per game average. The offensive mark is third to Lake Superior State's 2.94 goals per game average, and league-leading Minnesota State's 3.31. Also third in the league is junior Mitch McLain, who ranks third overall with 0.48 goals per game average.

Nationally, junior goaltender Chris Nell jumped up in the rankings by improving to a .902 season save percentage, launching him from 57th overall last week to 50th this week of all Division I goaltenders. As a team, the Bowling Green squad rose from 30th to 21st after shutting out Mercyhurst 3-0 and currently holds a 2.68 goals against average on the season.

>>CAPTAIN'S ADVANTAGE
Senior captain 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 13 career power play goals. The duo accounts for nearly half of the career power play goals on the Bowling Green squad, which is 53 since the start of the 2013-14 season.

>>PLAYOFF HUNT
Bowling Green is currently tied for fourth place in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, and will look to fight for a home ice advantage this weekend against Alabama Huntsville. Currently, the Falcons sit even with Ferris State, both holding 38 points. If Bowling Green were to sweep Alabama Huntsville, the Falcons own the tie breaker with the Bulldogs and would host the WCHA First Round of playoffs at the Slater Family Ice Arena from March 3-5. However, in the case of a series split or loss with the Chargers, the Falcons could potentially be jumped by Ferris State, Alaska or Lake Superior State and play the best-of-three round on the road.

>>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 153rd career game Saturday against Mercyhurst. Walker is now the active career leader for the Bowling Green squad, along with fellow senior Matt Pohlkamp, who has also appeared in 153 games. The pair leads six current Falcons who have 100+ games of collegiate experience, including Pierre-Luc Mercier (150), Kevin Dufour (147) and Mark Friedman (114).

The most recent addition to the century men is junior Tyler Spezia, who hit his 100-game mark last month in Mankato and is now at 107 games played. Spezia joins fellow junior Mitch McLain who clocked ice time in his 113th game on Saturday against the Lakers.

>>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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Stephen Baylis

Lukas Craggs

Brett D'Andrea

Kevin Dufour

Mark Friedman

Mitch McLain

Pierre-Luc Mercier

Chris Nell

Matt Pohlkamp

John Schilling

Tomas Sholl

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