The Bowling Green State University hockey team will play 12 games against NCAA Tournament teams in 2009-10 and will not play its first Central Collegiate Hockey Association contest until the end of October.
The 34-game schedule includes 16 regular season home games and two exhibition contests. BG opens its schedule on Oct. 3 with an exhibition game against Wilfred Laurier that starts at noon at the BGSU Ice Arena. The other exhibition game is on October 16 against the U.S. National Team Development Program Under-18 team. That game will begin at 7:05.
Bowling Green opens the regular season on the road for only the second time in the last five years with a series against Minnesota State on Oct. 9-10. Those two programs hooked up for the first time last season at the Ice Arena with the first game of the series concluding in a 2-2 tie before the Mavericks took the finale by a 5-2 count. Minnesota State was ranked ninth in the country at the time the two team played in late November.
Bowling Green hosts Providence, a team that posted a 4-3 win over the Falcons last season, on Oct. 23-24 to open its regular season home schedule with a pair of 7:05 contests.
The Falcons then begin their 28-game CCHA schedule with seven of their first 10 contests on the road. BG makes the trip to Omaha, Neb. to take on the University of Nebraska-Omaha on Oct. 30-31 top open league play. The Falcons stay on the road for their second weekend of league play traveling to Ferris State for a Nov. 6-7 series.
In addition to Notre Dame, Bowling Green's cluster this season includes Michigan and Michigan State. The Falcons will play four games against those teams while playing every other CCHA program twice.
BG plays its only home-and-home series of the season with Michigan and Michigan State. BG and Michigan, one of four 2009 NCAA Tournament participants on its schedule, play the first time on Nov. 20-21 with second game of that series at Bowling Green. The second time the two programs meet, it will be a departure from the normal Friday-Saturday schedule. The third meeting of the season will take place on Thursday, Feb. 4 at the Ice Arena while the series finale will be played Tuesday, Feb. 9 at 7:35 in Ann Arbor.
Four of the CCHA teams that come to Bowling Green for a two-game series will play the Saturday game beginning at 5:05. Games against Alaska (Nov. 14), Lake Superior (Dec. 5), Western Michigan (Jan. 23) and 2009 national runner-up Miami (Feb. 13) will all begin at 5:05 instead of the normal 7:05 starting time. The final game of the regular season, the finale of a home-and-home series with Michigan State, will also begin at 5:05.
Bowling Green's other non-league game will be played in the Dodge Holiday Classic hosted by the University of Minnesota on Jan. 2-3. Pairings for the tournament have not be announced, but Clarkson and Northern Michigan round out the four-team field.
Their home series against Western Michigan on Jan. 22 begins a string in which BG will play eight of its last 10 games of the season at home.
The Falcons play six teams (Ohio State, Northern Michigan, Alaska, Notre Dame, Miami, Michigan) who finished last season with a winning record and each of the other three teams in the holiday tournament had winning records in 2008-09.
This upcoming season will be the first under new Head Coach Dennis Williams.
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