No. 8 Falcons To Face No. 6 Minnesota State In Battle Of Top 10 Teams

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The No. 8 Bowling Green State University hockey team will be opposed by a ranked WCHA opponent for the second straight weekend, this time going against No. 6 Minnesota State. The Mavericks and Falcons will enter the series as the top two teams in the WCHA with Minnesota State holding just a two-point advantage over Bowling Green in the conference standings. For the Falcons, they enter after taking a weekend sweep over No. 18 Michigan Tech at the Slater Family Ice Arena. As for Minnesota State, they fell short to Bemidji State the last time they took the ice in a non-conference matchup.

No. 8 Bowling Green Falcons (16-4-0, 5-1-0-0 WCHA)
vs.
No. 6 Minnesota State Mavericks (9-2-1, 6-0-0-0 WCHA)

GAME INFORMATION	Friday, Feb. 5, 8:07 p.m.* / Saturday, Feb. 6, 7:07 p.m.*
LOCATION	Mankato, Minn. / Mankato Civic Center
WATCH (FloHockey)	Friday / Saturday
RADIO	Falcon Radio Network
LIVE STATS	BGSUFalcons.com
LISTEN ONLINE	BGSUFalcons.com
GAME NOTES	Bowling Green
GAME PROGRAM	Bowling Green

*Times are EST

Matching Up With The Mavericks
While Minnesota State has been rather dominant this season, they enter coming off just their second loss of the season. Facing Bemidji State in a non-conference series, the Mavericks fell short in a 4-1 final, despite outshooting the Beavers 36-10. Part of the outcome could be attributed to Minnesota State giving star goaltender Dryden McKay the night off. McKay currently leads the NCAA in goals against average (0.90), save percentage (.954) and shutouts (6) while being second in winning percentage (.900) thanks to a 9-1-0 record between the pipes. As a team, Minnesota State will also enter leading the NCAA in scoring defense, giving up just 1.25 goals per game, as well as power play percentage with a mark of .304.

The Games At A Glance
The Falcons and Mavericks will enter this weekend's series as two of the top three teams in the country in regards to scoring margin. Minnesota State slots in at second in the nation with a margin of 2.17 while Bowling Green is just behind in third at 2.10, being two of the three teams in the nation to have a scoring margin north of two. This comes from both teams being among the top in the country for scoring defense. As previously mentioned, Minnesota State is leading the statistic, but Bowling Green isn't too far off with the fourth best mark at 1.90. The two teams are just two of the four in the country giving up less than two goals per game. The difference could be in scoring offense where the Falcons are just one of three teams averaging four goals or more per game and are third in the nation, whereas Minnesota State is 14th and averaging 3.42 goals per game.

Last Time Out
Last weekend the Falcons were able to come away with a series sweep over No. 18 Michigan Tech to advance to 5-1-0 in the WCHA and 16-4-0 on the season. In the first game of the series the Falcons were able to capture a 6-3 victory behind four points from Brandon Kruse and a perfect power play, going 2-for-2. As for Saturday night (Jan. 30), the Falcons rallied back from being down 2-1 to score four straight goals between the second and third period to best the Huskies in a 5-2 final. In that matchup it was Alex Barber's three points that helped make the difference, including two goals in the contest.

The 200 Lines
This past weekend the Falcons mixed up the forward lines and formed what is being referred to as the "200 Lines." With the exception of the freshman forward line, the other three all have over 200 career points. The trio of Sam Craggs, Connor Ford and Cameron Wright have the highest total with 243 career points. Not far behind is the line of Brandon Kruse, Taylor Schneider and Alex Barber with 232 combined points. The third grouping, consisting of Gavin Gould, Max Johnson and Evan Dougherty, has been able to put up 203 career points.

Kruse Into The Record Book … Again
While Brandon Kruse put his name in the BG Falcon Hockey record book almost a year ago for totaling 100 career points, he could add his name to the same page for the second time. Currently with 96 career assists, Kruse needs just four more to become the program's 21st player all-time to total 100 career assists and the first player to do so in the 21st century. The last player to reach the milestone was Kelly Perrault during the 1996-97 season when both he and Curtis Fry hit the mark.

Wright There
Bowling Green already has three active 100-point scorers on the roster, but that number could soon become four. After logging three assists against Michigan Tech, Cameron Wright is now narrowing the gap and needs just six points to reach the century mark, currently sitting at 94. If Wright reaches the mark it would be the first time since the 1996-97 season that the Falcons have at least four active players with 100 career points. In that season, Bowling Green rostered Curtis Fry (194 points), Mike Johnson (162), Kelly Perrault (148) and Brett Punchard (135).

The Season Of Sweeps
Despite playing in just a total of 10 series so far, the Falcons have already registered seven sweeps this season, matching the total from the entire 2019-20 season. If the Falcons can pick up just one more sweep it would be the most since the 1987-88 season that logged 10 sweeps. That team finished second in the CCHA and went on to win the CCHA Tournament while advancing to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament.

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