Ferris State hockey swept the Lake Superior State Lakers in a home-and-home series on Friday, Jan. 19 at Ewigleben Arena and Saturday, Jan. 20 at Taffy Abel Arena.
The Bulldogs had lost to the Lakers (11-13-1, 8-7-1 in CCHA) previously this season, but got revenge by collecting their first sweep of the season with a strong 5-3 win on Friday and an overtime win 3-2 on Saturday.
Head coach Bob Daniels had high praise for the defense and special teams unit after the win.
“For the most part we’re playing better defensively,” Daniels said. “We’re stingier. We’ve got some areas to clean up but at one point we had to kill the five-minute major, and I thought the guys did a super good job in that.”
The match up on Friday started as a defensive battle with no score through the first period. That changed early in the second frame when sophomore defenseman Travis Shoudy and freshman forward Luigi Benincasa scored within two minutes of one another to make the score 2-0. The Bulldogs fell into a shorthanded situation late in the second and the Lakers took advantage by scoring two goals in less than a minute to even the score 2-2 heading into the final period. After a goal was overturned, the Bulldogs quickly combated and cashed in again two minutes later after a power-play goal by junior forward Nick Nardecchia to go up 3-2.
Before their series against the Lakers, Nardecchia spoke on the team’s focus heading into their games against the Lakers after a disappointing series against Minnesota State the previous weekend.
“Us forwards had a good meeting in practice,” Nardecchia said. “We’ve been working on special teams a lot more after some breakdowns last week. The guys are buying in, so I think it’ll be a good result.”
Ferris held onto the lead for the rest of the period and scored again with freshman forward Emerson Goode getting the empty netter. With less than a minute remaining, junior forward Kaleb Ergang scored. The Lakers managed ro senak in a last-second goal as a measure of revenge to make the final score 5-3.
The Bulldogs completed their sweep with their victory on the road. Daniels felt the game was one of their best games defensively while being pleased with the direction the team is heading.
“[I felt] that was probably our most complete game of the year, certainly from a defensive standpoint. [Noah Giesbrecht] played well with a .950 save percentage. I don’t think we gave them many grade-A chances. We gave both goalies a chance to get their save percentages up by being more stingy defensively. I thought we were better defensively in Saturday’s game than Friday’s. I felt like we did a good job, particularly being on the road. I’m kind of happy with where we’re at. I’m happy to see the guys starting to get some results for their games.”
After another scoreless first period, freshman forward Holden Doell gave Ferris the 1-0 lead early in the second. The Lakers evened up the score early in the third, but Ergang scored his second goal of the weekend to put the Bulldogs up 2-1 with seven minutes to play. Yet with just over a minute left, the Lakers brought in the extra attacker to tie the score at 2-2 and force overtime. The overtime period didn’t last long, however, Shoudy scored in less than a minute to finish off the 3-2 win.
Doell’s tally marked his first goal of the season and the first of his collegiate career. The rookie’s goal means a lot to him and he hopes to continue the trend of scoring.
“It felt amazing,” Doell said. “It took a little bit longer than I would have liked. [Austin McCarthy] made a really good pass and I was just lucky enough to find the back of the net. Hopefully get a couple more before the end of the year.”
With this series of wins, the Bulldogs move within a game of passing the Bowling Green Falcons (8-16, 6-8 in CCHA) and the Northern Michigan Wildcats (8-12-2, 6-8 in CCHA) in the CCHA standings. Ferris has a series against both of these teams next month in hopes to move up out of last place in the conference.
The Bulldogs will travel to South Dakota this upcoming weekend for their first-ever matchups against the soon-to-be interconference rival Augustana Vikings on Friday, Jan. 26 and Saturday, Jan. 27. Puck drop is set for 8:07 p.m. on Friday, and 7:07 p.m. on Saturday.