MILWAUKEE — Ferris State hockey’s weekend in the Kwik Trip Holiday FaceOff ended as a winless one, as they dropped Saturday’s contest against the Alaska Nanooks.
A 4-1 loss marks the Bulldogs’ second straight holiday tournament that they have been swept out of. Exactly one year ago, the Nanooks left Ferris winless at the GLI Tournament in Grand Rapids. It took the Bulldogs six periods to find a goal in the tournament while also being outscored 12-1 between the two games.
Head coach Bob Daniels raised his concerns about the disadvantage that the Bulldogs were at after having a three-week hiatus following the 8-0 loss to Wisconsin on Saturday. Daniels felt the team was again anchored down by a slow start.
“I thought we started out really slow in the first,” Daniels said. “I thought it was a carry-over from last night. We looked sluggish. We looked slow. In the second, we finally started to shake it off. We played much better in the second. I thought it carried over to the third as well… But nevertheless, I thought we had more jump. And we started to look a little closer to ourselves, which I was happy to see.”
Another rough start in the first period plagued the Bulldogs against Alaska. The start of Saturday night’s loss to Wisconsin had Ferris down 2-0 while being outshot 23-5. The opening frame against the Nanooks similarly had the Bulldogs down by two, and Alaska out-chanced them 17-4.
Ferris’ offense continued to stall out in the second stanza, as its scoring drought at the tournament extended to five periods. The Bulldogs fell into a deeper hole after allowing a shorthanded tally to make it 3-0 in favor of the Nanooks. After five frames of scoreless action for Ferris, freshman defenseman Logan Heroux tallied the Bulldogs’ first goal of the tournament while on the power play to make it 3-1. Alaska then tacked on an empty-net goal to put the game away and create a 4-1 loss for Ferris.
Before the Bulldogs return to CCHA play, they’ll get an exhibition match against the United States National Team Under-18 squad at Ewigleben Arena on Jan. 4. Daniels understands the benefits of the exhibition game.
“We didn’t need another week off,” Daniels said. “Now we can keep our edge from now until the end of the season.”
Puck drop against USA Hockey Under-18 is scheduled for 6:07 p.m.