BG vs. Michigan

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For the first time this season the Bowling Green hockey team will take on a nationally ranked opponent in the No. 6 Michigan Wolverines.

The Wolverines (5-1-0 overall, 2-0-0 CCHA) will travel to the BGSU Ice Arena tonight and tomorrow for their first time in two years. Faceoff for both nights is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

Michigan has won three of the last four meeting with the Falcons, including a weekend split in a series at Yost Ice Arena in Ann Arbor, Mich. last season.

“It’s nice to have them come to our rink this year,” said assistant captain Tyler Knight. “Just having a team like that, who is actually ranked pretty high in the country, it could give us a chance to get on a little bit of a roll and get some things going.”

So far this year the Falcons (2-7-0 overall, 0-6-0 CCHA) have struggled finding momentum to finish hockey games and playing Michigan might just be what Bowling Green has been looking for.

“[Michigan has] kind of had the same MO for the last 12 or 13 years,” said head coach Scott Paluch. “They bring in an extremely quick highly skilled team that plays with a real good physical edge.

For us to be successful we need to match their physical presence with physical play of our own, the ability to make contact and create offense.”

The Falcons will have to watch out for Michigan forward John Shouneyia, who will be lacing up his skates for the first time since Oct. 5 when he injured his wrist.

Shouneyia led Michigan in scoring with 10 goals and 40 assists last season.

The Wolverines are coming off an 8-2 victory over the USNTDP U-18 Friday, while the Falcons lost a two-game series at Miami (3-2, 6-1).

“We played a lot better Friday night. We came out with a lot more jump and did the things we needed to do to give ourselves a chance to win,” Knight said. “When it came to Saturday night we came out a little bit flat, got behind and just didn’t have any jump near the end of the game and it cost us. We’re trying to put that behind us. We had a really great week in practice.”

The Falcons have been working on perfecting their skills in practice along with improving on special teams.

“We’ve had a wonderful week,” Paluch said. “We’ve spent a lot of time on both special teams and power play and the penalty kill.

We’ve also worked on consistency and making contact in our forecheck and in our own end as well.”

Even with the practice the Falcons have had this week they are going to have their hands full against Michigan.

The only loss the Wolverines have had so far this season was on Oct. 12 against North Dakota where they lost 5-4 in overtime.

“We’ve played tough against [Michigan] and we know if we do things that we need to do, that we talked about in practice, we can come out on top,” Knight said.

Michigan’s last loss in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) was a 4-2 setback to Bowling Green on Jan 25, 2002 in Ann Arbor.

“It’s nice to be able to show some recent history that we’ve had some success against them,” Paluch said. “It really goes to show the parity in our league. Any team in our league can be successful on any night.”