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September 23, 2004
Falcon Hockey 2004-2005
Bowling Green Hockeyavast pro dwonload
How many people here know the history of this storied program?avast pro dwonload
How many people here know that this program has produced 1 NCAA championship, 2 Hobey Baker Memorial Award recipients (for football fans this is akin to the Heisman Trophy), 15 First Team All-Americans, 3 Second Team All-Americans, 4 First Team Academic All-Americans, 2 Second Team Academic All-Americans, 4 Third Team Academic All-Americans (D'Arcy McConvey was named to this team twice), and 9 hockey Olympians winning 2 gold and 2 silver medals?avast pro dwonload
How many people here know that BG has produced no less than 30 players who have or are still playing in the NHL, with several of those players having their names etched on the prestigious Stanley Cup? (Rob Blake sound familiar?)avast pro dwonload
All of this, and yet the program has fallen into relative obscurity, even in its own home town. There are still those of us around who have seen all of the highs and lows that this team has experienced over the years and refuse to abandon them. However, the point of this essay is not to reveal to you the reasons for the fall of this program for there are many hypothesis and opinions on this matter. No, I'm writing this to show you why I believe that Scott Paluch and his coaching staff are on the verge of turning this program around and returning it to the glory years of the 80's.avast pro dwonload
Scott Paluch became the head coach of the Bowling Green State University hockey team in 2002 after spending time as an assistant coach under Jerry York for 10 years (2 of those at BG, and 8 at Boston College). He is the first coach in the history of the program to return to his Alma Mater as the head coach. He played for Bowling Green, earning First Team All-American honors his senior year (1987-88), during the glory years of the program. He knows how to win. As an assistant coach at Boston College he helped coach his team to 4 consecutive Frozen Four appearances, winning the NCAA championship in 2001.avast pro dwonload
Since his arrival at BG there has been a distinct change in the attitude of the team. While the statistics didn't show it in the first year, the intensity on the ice did. The team just did not quit... a characteristic that had been missing of late. The team had lost a ton of scoring prowess to graduation the prior year and just did not have the guns to put the puck in the net. What did happen is that as the year progressed the team got stronger. Early in the season the team was all over the place with scores ranging from losing 3-2 to as much as 10-1... inconsistency was the key issue here. BG went 3-12-1 in the first half with the biggest highlights being a win against Michigan State and a tie against #6 Michigan (which proved that we could play with the big boys). By the second half of the season the scores were much tighter starting off with a tie and loss to Alaska-Fairbanks. But then something huge happened, we swept Northern Michigan... something we hadn't seen in, what seemed like, ages. The team was starting to gel and buy into Coach Paluch's scheme. We ended the second half of the season with a 5-11-2 record, but where we were losing to Ferris State 10-1 at the beginning of the season, we lost to them by scores of just 4-2, and 4-3 in the second half when they were ranked #5 nationally. This was a huge improvement in the minds of those who knew and cared.avast pro dwonload
Last year was the first year that Coach Paluch brought in his own recruits, and, in my mind, these were some of the best recruits BG has seen in a long time. Among them was Jordan Sigalet's younger brother Jonathan, an offensive minded defenseman, and James Unger, a scrappy playmaker who knows how to score. These 2 along with freshman Rich Meloche had an immediate impact on the team. Sigalet finished 7th in on the team scoring (a freshman defenseman!), Meloche was 8th, and Unger was 9th. (Sigalet was eligible to enter the draft this year, but declined, feeling that he needed to get bigger and stronger. This means that he will probably go higher in the draft when he finally enters it. Rest assured, he will be drafted!) What was the result last year? BG finished 11-18-9. We only had 3 more wins than the prior year, however we had 5 fewer losses. 9 ties!!! We played in 11 overtime games last year and finished 1-1-9!!! We only lost one of those. In years past when a game went into overtime we all dreaded it because our overtime history had been less than stellar. That was the attitude on the ice and in the stands... but not last year. We KNEW that the odds were with us that we would escape with at least one point. Another key statistic from last year: in the second half of the season we went 7-8-3 overall and 7-6-3 in league play. That is the first time in a long time that we came out with a winning record in league play. In fact, we had the fourth best record in the conference in the second half! Now, for the final statistic: We lost 7 games by 1 goal (6 of those in league play). How close were we to home ice in the playoffs last year, let alone finishing with a winning season? Turn those one goal losses and ties into wins and we end up 21-7 in league play and 27-9 overall. This really isn't a stretch... 1 goal games can change on a dime and many of them did last year. That's where all of the ties came from. (Also consider that we allowed 4 empty net goals last year meaning that those 4 games were one goal games where we pulled the goalie in favor of an extra attacker. Those could have gone either way also, but I chose not to include them.) We were that close. Frustrating? Yep! Encouraging? Even more so!avast pro dwonload
So, what can we expect this season? Many in the league are already writing us off because we lost our top 3 scorers to graduation. But, guess what? We have more scoring coming in then we are losing. Scott Paluch, Ron Fogarty, and Kevin Patrick have done an incredible job of recruiting for this season! Inside College Hockey magazine has ranked our incoming class 14th in the nation overall!!! This is incredible, people! How are they doing it? A $700,000 addition to the ice arena, spearheaded by former coach Buddy Powers, has helped immensely with recruiting. This, coupled with the fact that our current coaches are simply working harder and showing these kids that we want them more than the other schools. Case in point: John Mazzei (this kid is going to be good!). Mazzei needed to meet certain requirements to become eligible to play college hockey. Other big name schools were looking at him for next year figuring that, by then, he would be qualified. What did our coaches do? They told him exactly what he needed to do to meet those requirements and stayed with him and on him until they were met. The result? He came to BG THIS YEAR, NOT NEXT YEAR. It's my understanding that he never made a recruiting trip to our fair city, he came here site unseen. He said basically, that you stuck with me and helped me get eligible earlier so I'm playing my college hockey for BG! That is unbelievable! Others of note coming here to play this year: Jonathan Matsumoto - Rookie of the year in the Central Ontario Junior Hockey League and Mike Hodgson - USHL Defensive player of the year. All three of these kids are high caliber players and will immediately impact the program. All told, BG is bringing in eight new freshmen, and one transfer who is a junior (goaltender from Findlay); all have qualities that will add to the program and at least four will contribute immediately.avast pro dwonload
Aside from recruiting, BG has also hired a strength and conditioning coach who specializes in hockey. 90+ % of the team (even some of the incoming freshmen) stayed some or all of this past summer to work with him. The results have been fantastic. Many have put on several pounds of muscle; muscle specifically needed to improve their play on the ice. This team will have the strength and stamina needed to put those extra one or two goals past the opposing goalies and put us back where BG hockey belongs!avast pro dwonload
Come to the ice arena and give these kids the support they deserve. As you all know, athletes thrive on a strong home atmosphere. They play harder knowing that the fans are behind them, supporting them and cheering them on. Our ice arena rocks when it's packed (think of Anderson Arena only a little colder) and it gives a huge psychological advantage to the home team. Come on out this year and help put BG back at the top of the CCHA!!!avast pro dwonload
Written by BGFanavast pro dwonload
Edited (and $.02 added) by FalconFanatic
(OK, maybe $.10)avast pro dwonload
Posted by Ziggyzoomba at September 23, 2004 08:43 AMavast pro dwonload