Ferris hockey coach Bob Daniels’ final time coaching in Big Rapids came with a back-and-forth third period, which pushed the Bulldogs to extra frames against the Northern Michigan Wildcats after being down 3-2 late in the game.
Back-to-back goals in 21 seconds from Ferris (13-18-3, 12-13-1 in CCHA) saw them briefly take the lead before a goal, which was originally called off, was confirmed to tie the game for the Wildcats (5-27-2, 4-20-2 in CCHA) with seven ticks left. A fruitless overtime period took the game to a shootout, where Northern Michigan secured the win in seven rounds.
For the retiring Daniels, this game was memorable for many reasons.
“This will be when I remember in in the fond way. It was a quite a hockey game,” Daniels said. “That point was huge. That was big. Our goal coming in to the weekend was to climb in the standings. We knew going into today, we had a chance to still get to sixth place. By coming away with that point, mission accomplished. So I’ll always look back fondly on this game.”
The shootout loss will go down as a tie, which will give the Bulldogs a point in the CCHA standings. This locks Ferris into a match-up with second-place St. Thomas.
The Bulldogs, after opening their season with a 2-6-2 record in their first 10 games, finished their campaign going 6-3-1.
Alongside Daniels’ celebration to before the game, Ferris hockey honored its seven seniors. One of those seven came through tonight, as forward Kaleb Ergang nabbed a two-point night (1-1–2).
The point for getting through regulation propelled the Bulldogs from eighth place to sixth. Daniels is grateful to come away with any points.
“We were down a goal with a minute and five seconds and we tied the game up. So at that point, we were looking at no points,” Daniels said. “[We’re] happy to get the point, and I’m proud of the guys for continuing to battle.”
After a goalless first period, the Wildcats struck first early in the second period with a power-play goal. The Bulldogs quickly responded with a man-advantage tally of their own from junior forward Caiden Gault. Before the middle frame came to a close, Northern Michigan scored a second power-play goal.
The final stanza had junior forward Gavin Best tie the game back up at two for Ferris, but then fall behind again less than two minutes later. With graduate goaltender Noah West pulled, Ergang netted the equalizer and then was followed by Best for a go-ahead goal to make it 4-3.
The Wildcats thought they scored a goal to tie it back up, but it was originally waived off. Northern Michigan challenged the play and the play was reversed for a game-tying tally.
Overtime between the two teams failed to produce a winner. A seven-round shootout pushed the Wildcats to an extra point with a shootout win after scoring in two rounds compared to Ferris’ one shootout goal.
The Bulldogs will begin the CCHA playoffs in a best-of-three quarterfinal against the St. Thomas Tommies on March 7.