Falcons Host Mercyhurst for Historic Night of Hockey

Bowling Green Falcons (14-17-2, 12-13-1 WCHA)
vs.
Mercyhurst Lakers (11-14-4, 10-10-4 AHA)

GAME INFORMATION	Saturday, Feb. 11, 5:07 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
For the final non-conference action of the regular season, the Bowling Green hockey team will host Mercyhurst at the Slater Family Ice Arena in a special 5:07 p.m. start Saturday night. The game will serve as the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Ice Arena and will feature a weekend full of activities and special alums in attendance. For students, there will be free pizza for the first 100 at the rink.

>>VERSUS MERCYHURST
Bowling Green has only faced Mercyhurst one time in program history, which took place on Dec. 28, 2000 in Erie, Pa. The Falcons were able to get out of the gate with a 2-0 lead in the first period, ultimately downing the Lakers 3-1 in the Mercyhurst Ice Center.

>>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. 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. More information on the schedule of events for the 50th can be found at: https://www.bgsu.edu/events/ice-arena-50th-anniversary.html

>>HISTORIC REUNION
Most notably, Mike "Doc" Emrick will be on the call for the Falcons this weekend in conjunction with the BGSU Ice Arena 50th Anniversary Celebration. Emrick earned his doctorate degree from BGSU in Radio-TV Film in 1976. BGSU was also the origin of his nickname, "Doc". Prior to enrolling at BGSU, Emrick was an undergraduate work at Manchester College (North Manchester, Ind.) and completed his master's degree in radio/television at Miami University (Oxford, Ohio) in 1969. He is most widely known for his broadcasting work in the hockey world, most recently as the lead play-by-play announcer for hockey coverage on NBC and VERSUS. Emrick was also the lead broadcaster for the United States men's and women's hockey teams in the 2010 Winter Olympics. Among the many awards he has received is the NHL's Lester Patrick Award in 2004, making him the first of only five to have received the award for media work, and the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award by the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2008. He has also won four national Emmy Awards, and is the only hockey broadcaster to be so honored, while on December 12, 2011 Emrick became the first member of the media to be inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame.

In addition to Emrick, many Falcon Hockey greats will be in attendance, including Nelson Emerson, Jack Vivian, George McPhee, and members of the 1984 National Championship team. It will be a special weekend for Falcon Hockey as the official Slater Family Ice Arena name will be celebrated as well.

>>RECAPPING NORTHERN MICHIGAN
The Falcons struggled against Northern Michigan's goaltender Atte Tolvanen over the past weekend after racking up 75 shots on goal through two games and were unable to score. It was the most shots on goal from Bowling Green in a two game series this season, and the Falcons ultimately outshot the Wildcats by a combined 75-43 margin. Saturday night's 40 shots landing on net was just one shy of the season high of 41 on the year (at Miami, Oct. 29).

>>NELL IN NET
Junior goaltender Chris Nell tallied a weekend-high of eight saves in the first period Friday night, ultimately leading to 20 on the night. On Saturday, the Green Bay, Wis. native followed it up with 18 saves on Saturday as well. On the weekend, Nell had 38 saves, three goals against and a .927 save percentage, and jumped up seven spots nationally in his goals against average. Nell dropped from a season GAA of 2.52 before the weekend to a current 2.45, which helped him jump from 31st nationally last week, to 24th nationally this week.

>>FLYING IN THE LEAGUE
As a team, the Falcons rank third overall in the WCHA with its 2.70 goals per game average. The offensive mark is third to Lake Superior State's 2.96 goals per game average, and league-leading Minnesota State's 3.13.

Also third in the league is junior Mitch McLain, who ranks third overall with 0.50 goals per game average, as well as fellow junior Mark Friedman who averages 0.62 points per game and is third of all defensemen. It is Friedman's third consecutive week in the top-three of the conference of all defensemen.

>>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 52 since the start of the 2013-14 season.

>>PLAYOFF HUNT
Bowling Green is currently in fourth place in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, and will look to fight for a home ice advantage next weekend against Alabama Huntsville. Currently, the Falcons narrowly trail Minnesota State's 42-point third place marker, with a fourth place standing by 38 points. Although Alaska sits in fifth with just 30 points, the Nanooks are also in the hunt for home ice and have six remaining league games compared to the Falcons two making 18 potential points on the line. At best, the Falcons can finish third in the conference for the regular season with 44 points.

>>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 152nd career game Saturday against Northern Michigan. Walker is now the active career leader for the Bowling Green squad, along with fellow senior Matt Pohlkamp, who has also appeared in 152 games. The pair leads six current Falcons who have 100+ games of collegiate experience, including Pierre-Luc Mercier (149), Kevin Dufour (146) and Mark Friedman (113).

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 106 games played. Spezia joins fellow junior Mitch McLain who clocked ice time in his 112th game on Saturday against Northern Michigan.

>>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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Players Mentioned

Kevin Dufour

Mark Friedman

Mitch McLain

Pierre-Luc Mercier

Chris Nell

Matt Pohlkamp

Tyler Spezia

Sean Walker

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