Back-to-back four-plus goal performances from the No. 17 Western Michigan Broncos leave Bulldog hockey with a winless record and weekend.
A 4-1 loss on Friday, Oct. 11 at Lawson Ice Arena and a 5-1 defeat on Saturday, Oct. 12 at Ewigleben Ice Arena marked the first outright loss, road loss and the first time the Bulldogs (0-2-2) have been swept in the young season.
With the Bulldogs only having two goals to show in this out-of-conference series, head coach Bob Daniels believes the scoring output to be a tale of two nights.
“[The offensive production was] not great [on Friday],” Daniels said. “I think it’s a different question if their goaltender hadn’t played that well … we ran to a hot goaltender and we couldn’t get it by [him].”
Friday night’s tilt in the Broncos’ territory had Western Michigan (2-0-0) piggyback off a two-goal first frame and a two-tally third period to hand the Bulldogs a 4-1 loss. Junior forward Caiden Gault scored the lone Ferris goal following the Broncos’ opening goals.
Senior goaltender Noah West faced 44 shots in the tilt, four of which found the back of the net. The Broncos’ offense culminated their total 44 attempts on West by recording double-digit shots in all three periods. The Bulldogs failed to muster no more than eight shots in a period, as their second frame output ended up being the team’s most important part of the contest.
Ferris then returned to Ewigleben for the second leg of its home-and-home series. Despite keeping pace with Western Michigan with shots throughout the game, five unanswered goals spelled out another loss on the weekend.
Following the 5-1 defeat on home ice, Daniels was underwhelmed by the result.
“[I’m] disappointed. I thought we came out slow and I thought we’d have a lot of pushback after last night and we didn’t,” Daniels said. “I thought our second period was really good and Hampton Slukynsky in net for [Western Michigan] played really well. We had a lot of looks in the second, a lot of opportunities. We needed to come out of that with a goal or two.”
The Bulldogs had their chances throughout the contest with 27 shots to the Broncos’ 32. Ferris’ quiet offense wasn’t assisted by its power-play unit either, as the man-advantage unit stalled out five times during the series, four of which came in Saturday’s outing.
Western Michigan’s freshman goaltender Slukynsky nearly collected a shutout in his first career start with the Broncos. However, junior forward Cole Burtch, who transferred from Western Michigan this offseason, snapped the bid in the waning minutes. For Burtch, the measure of revenge is rather hollow.
“It’s obviously nice to score against your former team, but I would have would have definitely loved to win more than anything,” Burtch said. “I’m just glad to get one on the board for us tonight but I wish we came out with the win instead.”
The Bulldogs were held to 18 shot attempts in Friday’s loss while allowing 44 against. Ferris managed better on Saturday both offensively and defensively. Daniels believes the defensive side of things was “okay” in the loss.
Junior defenseman Trevor Taulien thought that the Bulldogs’ defense played the way they knew how.
“I thought we stuck to our game plan,” Taulien said. “We broke down a couple of times and had some odd-man rushes that led into goals. Just got to clean that up for next weekend.”
Through four games, the Bulldogs have been outshot 144-109 and had a shot advantage in only one of their games.
Ferris continues its search for its first win with another out-of-conference battle against the St. Lawrence Saints in Canton, N.Y. on Friday, Oct. 18, and Saturday, Oct. 19. The Bulldogs faced the Saints last year in a series that ended in a split at Ewigleben Arena.