The Bulldogs lost both matchups against the Bemidji State Beavers on the road on Thursday, Feb. 15 and Friday, Feb. 16.
Ferris State (10-20-1, 6-15 in CCHA) split their previous series with the Beavers (13-15-2, 11-7-2 in CCHA) earlier this season and fell short this past weekend with a 3-2 overtime loss Thursday and a 4-1 loss Friday. The series sweep extends the Bulldogs losing streak to four consecutive games.
Head coach Bob Daniels remained positive despite the overtime loss on Thursday.
“We did some things really well,” Daniels said. “We generated a lot of scoring chances we just couldn’t capitalize, especially in overtime. Logan [Stein] had a great game in the net just lost sight of a few rebounds, but I give the guys a lot of credit for taking it to that extra period and giving us a chance.”
The Bulldogs went down 1-0 in the first period on Thursday before senior forward Jacob Dirks tallied his second goal of the year to tie the score early in the second. The back and forth continued with a Beaver goal midway through the second followed by senior defenseman Drew Cooper getting his first goal of the season to even the game at 2-2.
Cooper’s goal forced the game into overtime but the Beavers scored less than two minutes into the period handing the Bulldogs just their second overtime loss this season 3-2.
Cooper remained focused on the team’s aspirations despite his first goal of the year.
“We definitely haven’t been able to achieve the results we have hoped for recently,” Cooper said. “But we showed a great team effort to come back and take that game to overtime. We’ve shown that we can play with the best teams in our conference this year, and no one in the locker room has lost sight of that.”
The Bulldogs cashed in quickly on Friday with a power-play goal by senior forward Stepan Pokorny to take an early 1-0 lead. Ferris kept the lead into the second period before the Beavers scored two goals in the first five minutes to go up 2-1. The Bulldogs fought to stay in it but gave up two more goals late in the third and fell 4-1.
Daniels felt the team lost a bit of their touch in the back half of the series.
“Just didn’t seem like we had that extra gear,” Daniels said. “We hung on there for a while, just couldn’t keep it going into the final period. If we could find a way to generate more scoring chances off of our defense it could be a whole different story.”
With the regular season coming to a close, the CCHA playoff tournament is on the horizon. Freshman defenseman Trevor Taulien is excited for the opportunity to make a collegiate playoff debut.“I’ve always dreamed of playing DI playoff hockey,” Taulien said. “It’s gonna be fun. Coach has done a great job getting us ready for it this year.”
The Bulldogs have three conference matchups remaining against the Northern Michigan Wildcats and the Lake Superior Lakers before heading into the CCHA playoffs in early March.
Ferris will return to the ice this weekend for their last home series against the Northern Michigan Wildcats on Friday, Feb. 23, and Saturday, Feb. 24 for senior night. Puck drop is set for 7:07 p.m. on Friday and 5:07 p.m. on Saturday for a senior night celebration following the game.