The Bowling Green Hockey program has officially announced the addition of 12 players to the 2023-24 squad. The group includes four transfers, Spencer Kersten, Josh Nodler, Owen Ozar, and Tommy Pasanen, and eight freshmen.
Kersten is a 5-foot-10, 185 pound right-handed senior forward from Waterloo, Ontario. Kersten will join the Falcons for his fifth year of college hockey, spending the previous four at Princeton.
A captain on the 2022-23 squad, he has tallied 15 goals and 23 assists for 38 points in 93 games. He played in all 31 games as a freshman, leading his class with five goals and seven assists for 12 points. He scored a goal in a win over St. Cloud State in his first career game, then notched an assist the following night.
The forward had a pair of power play goals that season, as well as a two-assist game against Yale. He scored the opening goal of Princeton’s ECAC Tournament win over Dartmouth. After the 2020-21 season was canceled, Kersten returned in 2021-22 to record six goals and 10 assists for 16 points in 31 games.
He tallied two goals in a win over Cornell, then recorded back-to-back two-point games against Brown and RPI. He scored the game-winning goal against Brown, then assisted on the game-tying and game-winning goal against RPI. He also had a two-assist game against Dartmouth on Feb. 14, then scored a shorthanded goal against Colgate on Feb. 25.
“Spencer is a great kid who will provide leadership for us,” said assistant coach Stavros Paskaris. “He fits the identity of the program and will help with our pace.”
Last season, Kersten played in 31 games and had four goals and six assists for 10 points. Two of his goals were shorthanded and the other two came in an ECAC Tournament win over Union.
He scored the game-winner with 4:03 left in regulation, then clinched the victory with an unassisted score with 80 seconds to play. This came one week after he had a career-best three assists against RPI, with all three coming in the third period.
At the end of the year, he earned the program’s Tucker Ironman Award. He is a three-time ECAC All-Academic Team selection and has a faceoff winning percentage of 54 over the last two seasons.
Kersten played two seasons for the OJHL’s Oakville Blades, including one season with current Falcon Ryan O’Hara. Over 134 games, he collected 57 goals and 86 assists for 143 points, leading the Blades to the 2019 regular season title, Buckland Cup, and Dudley-Hewitt Cup.
He was named Buckland Cup MVP and Dudley-Hewitt Cup Top Forward. He also played for Canada East U19 at the World Junior A Championships, tallying a team-best five points and earning Game MVP against Russia.
Nodler, a 5-10, 195-pound right-handed senior forward from Oak Park, Michigan, was picked by the Calgary Flames at No. 150 overall in Round Five of the 2019 NHL Draft.
Nodler comes to Bowling Green after spending three seasons with Michigan State and one with Massachusetts (Hockey East). Boasting 126 games of college hockey experience, the Michigan native has a career line of 15 goals and 24 assists for 39 points.
Five of his goals have come on the power play, including his first career goal against Cornell on Nov. 2, 2019. Following his freshman season, he was named Michigan State’s Rookie of the Year and earned AHCA Krampade All-American Scholar honors.
He had a pair of multi-point efforts during the 2020-21 season, including one against Michigan on Jan. 9, where he scored the game-winning goal with just 37 seconds remaining in regulation. At the end of the year, he won the Amo Bessone Award for athletic and academic achievement and community involvement. Before the 2021-22 season, he was named assistant captain.
“We’re looking forward to having Josh’s experience in our locker room,” said Paskaris. ” His everyday work lines up with the values of Bowling Green hockey.”
Nodler had a career-best line of seven goals and eight assists for 15 points in 2021-22, including four power play tallies. He had a power play goal and assisted on the game-winning goal at Ohio State on Oct. 29, one of four multi-point performances.
On Nov. 13, he scored another power play goal against Ferris State to kickstart a comeback win for the Spartans. This was the first of four unanswered goals for MSU, who won 4-3 and scored the game-winner with 20 seconds remaining in regulation.
Nodler picked up the secondary assist on the late goal. He was a two-time Academic All-Big Ten selection as a Spartan. Last season, he had five points in 27 games for UMass, including a two-assist game against Union on Oct. 22.
In the last three seasons, he has a faceoff record winning percentage of 54.6, ranking 11th in Big Ten with a 55.1 percentage in 2020-21. Before his college career, he was a USHL All-Rookie second-team selection for the Fargo Force. He was also a member of the USA gold medal team at the 2018 World Junior A Challenge.
He is the first Falcon to be an NHL draft pick since Brandon Kruse, who was picked in the fifth round by the Vegas Golden Knights in 2018.
Ozar, a 5-9, 165-pound right-handed junior forward from Prince Albert, Sask., played two seasons with Denver (NCHC), including the 2021-22 campaign that saw the Pioneers win the NCAA Championship.
He played 21 games as a freshman, including all four of the NCAA Tournament, where DU outscored opponents 13-6 en route to the program’s ninth national title. In the national title game, he registered one shot on goal, the first SOG of the contest.
He recorded his first career point against Western Michigan on Feb. 18, 2022, assisting on Mike Benning’s third period goal. The forward helped the Pioneers to a 15-5-1 record in the games he skated that season, including a 4-3 win over Arizona State on Oct. 9, his collegiate debut.
At the end of the season, he was named to the NCHC Academic All-Conference Team. He played in 29 games last season, logging one goal and five assists for six points. He opened the season with a two-assist game against Notre Dame on Oct. 7, then notched an assist in both games of the Lindenwood series on Dec. 16-17.
“Owen is a talented player with a great skillset,” said Paskaris. “We loved him as a junior player and we’re excited we get the chance to work with him now.”
Ozar netted his first collegiate goal against Miami on March 11, the game-winning tally that gave Denver its 30th and advanced them to the NCHC Frozen Faceoff Semifinals. He also recorded an assist and finished the game +3. With Ozar in the lineup, Denver had a 20-9 record.
Prior to his collegiate career, he spent a season in the USHL playing for the Waterloo Blackhawks. Playing alongside current Falcon Ryan O’Hara, Ozar recorded 15 goals and 19 assists for 34 points, ranking second on the team.
He spent the previous two seasons with the BCHL’s Trail Smoke Eaters, totaling 46 goals and 59 assists for 105 points in 112 games. The team reached the BCHL Playoffs in both seasons. At the end of the 2019-20 season, he was named a BCHL Second Team All-Star after ending the season ranking fourth in the league in points (66) and 10th in penalty minutes (81).
In 2019, he played for Canada at the World Junior A Challenge, where he was teammates with current Falcon Ethan Scardina. This is the second consecutive year the Falcons have added a transfer from a national championship team. Hunter Lellig joined BGSU after winning the 2018 NCAA Championship with Minnesota-Duluth.
Pasanen, a 6-4, 218-pound right-handed junior defenseman from Schweinfurt, Germany, joins the Falcons after three seasons with Clarkson (ECAC), the first of which was a redshirt year.
During the 2021-22 campaign, he tallied three goals and four assists for seven points, including a power play goal against Princeton on Feb. 11, 2022. He netted his first career goal against Dartmouth on Jan. 21, 2021.
His first collegiate point came during his first career game, collecting the secondary assist on a shorthanded goal against Alaska Fairbanks on Oct. 8, 2021.
On March 12, 2022, he scored against Union in the ECAC Quarterfinals, helping the Knights advance to the conference tournament semifinals. Pasanen finished the season with a plus/minus of plus 16, the highest on the team.
He contributed to the penalty kill unit that finished the year ranking ninth in the nation, killing 83.6% of penalties. The Knights allowed just 2.3 goals per game that season, ranking 12th in the NCAA.
Clarkson finished the year with a 21-10-5 record, finishing No. 16 in the Pairwise but missing the NCAA Tournament by two spots. They ended the season ranked No. 17 in the final USCHO Poll, after previously ranking as high as No. 14.
“Tommy is a smart, puck-moving defenseman with good size and stick skills,” said assistant coach Curtis Carr. “He can skate well, will help us defensively, and can add offense from the blue line.”
In 2022-23, the defenseman played in 32 games, tallying two goals and four assists for six points. He ranked third on the team in blocked shots (37) and second in penalty minutes (38).
At the Kwik Trip Holiday Face Off, he had a pair of assists in a 6-3 win over UMass, including the primary helper on the game-winning goal. He had a pair of blocks the following night, helping Clarkson defeat Wisconsin, 3-1, and win the Kwik Trip Holiday Face Off crown.
At the end of the tournament, Pasanen was named the Kwik Trip Holiday Face Off Most Outstanding Defenseman. Before his Clarkson career, Pasanen played for the German U16, U17, and U18 National Teams, then joined Germany’s U20 National Team when he was only 18.
He spent two seasons with the USHL’s Sioux City Musketeers totaling 24 points and 126 penalty minutes through 100 games. Pasanen also played for Red Bull Salzburg U18, winning a league title in 2017. He was also named to the 2020-21 ECAC All-Academic Team.
