After a strong start to the weekend, Bulldog hockey fails to collect their first sweep of the season against the Augustana Vikings.
The 4-1 loss ends the Bulldogs’ (4-10-2, 2-7 in CCHA) two-game win streak, their longest of the season.
Ferris has come up short on all but one Saturday game this season, as the Bulldogs hold a 1-6-1 in the latter half of their weekends.
After a neck-and-neck first period that had Augustana edge Ferris in shots, 10-9, the game unraveled fast in the second period. The Vikings grabbed two goals in 2:07, the first of which came on the power play.
The Bulldogs’ NCAA-worst penalty kill has plagued the team all season. Head coach Bob Daniels kept it short when talking about the ailing penalty kill unit.
“We’re not doing very well on it,” Daniels said. “It’s like they don’t have a lot of confidence in that right now.”
Outside of the penalty kill, Daniels thought the team “didn’t have a lot of legs” in the loss, believing there were players that “just looked gassed.”
More recently, Ferris has been experiencing the issue of surrendering multiple goals in short periods of time.
In its past seven games, including the loss to Augustana tonight, Ferris has given up two-plus goals in under five minutes of each other in all seven contests. The multi-goal scoring for the Bulldogs’ opposition has totaled 15 tallies, seven of which have come on the Ferris penalty kill.
Following their two-goal second frame, the Vikings tacked on another in the third to make it a 3-0 game. In the final minute of play, Ferris found its offense with junior forward Gavin Best netting a goal. After the tally, Augustana finished the tilt with an empty-net tally.
The Bulldogs have had a few games this season where they’ve spoiled their opponents’ shutout bid in the twilight of the third period but ultimately lost. Junior forward Caiden Gault remains optimistic about the Bulldogs’ scoring chances.
“It’s frustrating when you’re not scoring,” Gault said. “Eventually it’s gonna go in and you just gotta keep pushing and keep doing everything right. Eventually, they’ll go in. But you gotta keep a level head and have a positive mindset.”
The Bulldogs and Vikings matched each other with shots in the second and third periods. Augustana came out of the game with a one-shot advantage with 33. Senior goaltender Noah West turned away 30 of the attempts in his ninth-consecutive game played for a .910 (30/33) save percentage.
Ferris will get a week’s rest before heading to the Upper Peninsula for a two-game slate against the Northern Michigan Wildcats. The one-win Wildcats sit at the bottom of the CCHA, as they have no interconference victories this season. The matches will be played on Dec. 6 and Dec. 7.