This past Saturday at 7:07 PM (why specifically at 7:07 I'm not quite sure) our very own BGSU Hockey Team played against the Michigan Tech Huskies. While they ended up losing 2-1, the night wasn't all bad. This being my first hockey game at Bowling Green, I learned a lot about the game itself and about the BGSU Hockey program and their players. Since hockey has become such a point of pride for the University, I figured every student should at least know what I know now about our program. After all is said and done, I truly believe that every student at BG should attend at least one hockey game during their time here, and here's why.

Our team is a big point of pride for BGSU because we were favored in our division by coaches and media preseason polls and we were ranked the 14th best college hockey program in USA Today. Just recently one of our players became the WCHA offensive player of the week, due to his netting of two hat tricks in three weeks.

Our players are very much to be bragged about, one of our goalies is six feet and five inches, not too far behind the record-setting goalie height for the National Hockey League.The tallest goalie in the HNL is Ben Bishop of the Tampa Bay Lightning, he is a surprising six feet and seven inches tall. It's a big deal for our team to have such a tall goalie, and his height comes in handy quiet frequently.

Also, our hockey team alumni are a pretty big deal, too. Rob Blake, who attended BGSU in the late 80's won the Stanley Cup in 2001 with the Colorado Avalanche and won a Gold Medal in the 2002 Winter Olympics with his home Canadian National Hockey team. A more recent Alumni, Kevin Bieksa, graduated from BG in 2004 with a degree in Finance and currently plays for the Anaheim Ducks, needless to say he's a huge point of pride for the Falcons.

Before you go to a game, you should probably know what a penalty box is, since this is specific to the game of hockey (and a few other less-common sports). This might seem elementary to a hockey fan, but it's a fairly new concept for people who don't typically watch the sport. If a player is given a penalty, he has to sit out for typically two minutes (five minutes if it's a severe penalty). At this point, the other team goes on a "power play", where one team has more players than the other team, typically five on four players (at the game this past Saturday, there was a momentary four on three situation). Once the team on a power play scores a goal or the penalty time is up, the player in the penalty box comes back out on to the ice.

Aside from all of these trivial facts, I had a blast at the hockey game rooting for our Falcons. Being a student at Bowling Green State University for this past semester, I've had the time of my life. The best parts about Bowling Green are the pride that the students have for this university and our sports. Even though I boycotted most of the football games this past fall and don't typically enjoy sports, I had a really good time rooting for the Falcons this past Saturday. If you want to catch a game, the next time they'll be home after break is January 20th against Alaska at 7:07 in the Ice Arena!