THIS WEEK: Western Michigan and Bowling Green conclude their season series with a home-home match this weekend. Friday's game will take place at the BGSU Ice Arena at 7:05 p.m. while the series finale will be played at Lawson Arena Saturday at 7:35 p.m.
The last time these two teams met, the Falcons swept the series 3-2 (OT) and 5-4 (OT) on Nov. 2-3. In the latter game the Broncos spotted BGSU a four-goal lead before scoring four unanswered goals in the third period to tie the game, only to fall in overtime.

LAST WEEK: WMU was swept 6-1, 5-1 by #1 Michigan in a home-home series. Friday night the host Wolverines got scoring primarily from their third and fourth lines, while junior defenseman Steve Silver scored the lone goal for the Broncos just seven seconds into the third period. In Saturday's tilt WMU was unable to contain Chad Kolarik, who exploded for four goals. Another defenseman scored for the Broncos as Nathan Ansell's slapshot from the point evaded UM netminder Billy Sauer for his second goal of the season. Sophomore Riley Gill got the start both nights for the Broncos; Friday night he stopped 26 shots in two periods of work before being relieved by freshman Jerry Kuhn at the start of the third. Kuhn turned aside 12 shots in 20 minutes. Saturday night Gill made 33 saves.

SERIES HISTORY: Western Michigan trails BGSU in the all-time series by a 47-69-4 margin. Last season the Broncos split the series against the Falcons, falling 5-1 Friday night before rebounding for a 5-0 shutout Saturday in a pair of games at Bowling Green. This year the two teams are clustermates and have already met, with the Falcons sweeping a home-home series by scores of 3-2 (OT) and 5-4 (OT).
Senior Jeff Pierce is the Broncos' active points leader againt the Falcons, scoring 3-3--6 in eight career games, followed by junior Jeff LoVecchio, who has 2-3--5 in six games. Junior Patrick Galivan and freshman Max Campbell both average more than a point per game against Bowling Green, averaging 2.0 and 1.5 points respectively. Galivan has compiled 0-4--4 while Campbell has scored 1-2--3 in two games apiece.

SCOUTING THE FALCONS: Bowling Green has compiled an even 10-10-0 record overall and is .500 in league play as well with a 7-7-0 CCHA mark, good for sixth in the standings. The Falcons enter this weekend off a split at Lake Superior State, capturing the first game 4-2 while falling the next night 4-1. BGSU is an even 2-2 since the start of the new year, having split with then-No. 1 Miami the previous weekend.
Derek Whitmore (15-5--20) and Jacob Cepis (10-10--20) are tied for the team lead in scoring. Whitmore leads the Falcons and is among the league leaders in goals (15) and power-play goals (nine), while James Perkin and Kevin Schmidt are tied for the team assist lead with 13 apiece.
Nick Eno and Jimmy Spratt have been splitting time in net all season, with Eno posting the better stats. The freshman has an overall record of 6-3-0 with a 2.57 goals-against average and an .897 save percentage, while Spratt maintains a goals-against average of 2.94 and a save percentage of .889 with a record of 4-7-0.

SELLING POWER: Senior Nathan Ansell dented the twine for the second time this season last Saturday with a power-play goal late in the first period. With his second power-play goal of the year, the stay-at-home defenseman has tied his season high, set in 2005-06.
Four of Ansell's five career goals have come on the power play.

FASTER THAN A SILVER BULLET: Junior defenseman Steve Silver scored his first goal of the season last Friday just seven seconds into the third period, the quickest that a Bronco has scored at the start of a period this season. Silver's goal was just two seconds slower than the school record of five seconds into a period.
Prior to Silver's goal, the fastest a WMU player had scored at the start of a period this year was 22 seconds in when sophomore defenseman Tyler Ludwig converted on a five-on-three power play at Bowling Green Nov. 3.

QUICK TURN ABOUT: Although Western Michigan scored its fastest goal to start a period against the Wolverines, they also surrendered the quickest goal to start a period this season when Kevin Quick scored 36 seconds into the second period. Quick was eight seconds quicker than Niagara's Egor Mironov, who opened the Oct. 26 game with a goal 44 seconds in.
The next night teammate Chad Kolarik was even faster, scoring 30 seconds into the first period.

VOTE FOR HOBEY NOW OPEN: Vote For Hobey--the annual fan balloting portion of the Hobey Baker Award nomination process--is open from now until March 9. Three Broncos are in the field, including juniors Patrick Galivan and Jeff LoVecchio, and sophomore Tyler Ludwig. Visit http://www.hobeybaker.com/voting today and support your Broncos.