After giving up a two-goal lead in the second, Bulldog hockey clawed back for a 5-2 win, giving the team its first back-to-back wins of the season.
The win comes against the Augustana Vikings, a team the Bulldogs have only faced once before. The Vikings, a CCHA newcomer, have never played against Ferris at Ewigleben Arena before today.
Ferris’ man-advantage, which scored twice tonight, has had its fair share of struggles all season. Through 15 games, the Bulldogs’ power play sits at 9% (4-44) and before tonight, they had not scored a man-advantage goal at home.
Head coach Bob Daniels believes that the situations that the power-play scoring come on aren’t anything new.
“I can’t say that it looks any different to me,” Daniels said. “Our zone entries before were really good. Our faceoff percentages were good. Our ability to track pucks [were good] … everything that we’re asking, the guys were doing [before].”
Ferris currently ranks 60th of 64 in NCAA DI power play percentages.
After going 0-20 on the power play at home coming into the tilt, freshman forward Matt Corbet netted the first man-advantage goal in front of the home crowd to start the scoring. A second tally from senior forward Jacob Dirks put Ferris ahead going into the first intermission.
It took the Vikings 5:02 to notch two power-play goals of their own to return the game to a tie.
This marks an issue with the other side of the Bulldogs’ special teams: the penalty kill.
Ferris’ penalty kill unit sits at the bottom of the NCAA at 66.1% (41/62). Tonight’s back-to-back man-advantage tallies from the Vikings are reminiscent of last homestand against Michigan Tech. The Huskies beat Ferris on the first stint of the weekend on two power-play goals in 2:36.
However, unlike that series, Ferris fought back with three unanswered tallies. Junior forward Caiden Gault, freshman defenseman Logan Heroux and junior forward Tyler Schleppe brought the game to 5-2
Heroux’s goal acts as his first collegiate goal, while Schleppe’s goal was only a part of a three-point night. The junior forward now has six points in three games after returning from injury.
Previously, Schleppe credited the gelling between his new linemates, junior forward Connor McGrath and Corbet for the uptick in scoring. Their shared second line has combined for 11 points (5-6–11) in the past four games.
Scoring came in bunches tonight, with five different Bulldogs finding the back of the net. To Schleppe, that’s what the team hopes for.
“We’ve been struggling to score goals,” Schleppe said. “We kind of look for that all throughout the lineup. I think that’s what we got tonight.”
Ferris will face the Vikings again tomorrow with hopes of extending its win streak to three games and remaining undefeated all-time against Augustana. Puck drop is scheduled for 6:07 p.m.