The Bulldogs look to improve on poor fin­ish from a sea­son ago

Photo By: Kate Dupon | PhotographerThe Ferris State hockey team works to per­fect their skills at the Robert L. Ewigleben Ice Arena. A major­ity of the defense team that earned fifth place in the CCHA in goals allowed last year have returned for another season.

The Bulldogs head into the 2009–2010 sea­son with 21 return­ing let­ter­win­ners from last year.

Ferris fin­ished the 2008–2009 sea­son with five losses in its final six reg­u­lar sea­son con­tests. In the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) play­offs, the Bulldogs were swept by the University of Nebraska-Omaha on the road in a first round exit.

This sea­son, the Bulldogs will lean on the expe­ri­ence of their defense to carry the team. The defense fin­ished fifth in the CCHA in goals allowed a year ago and seven of the eight defense­men have returned. The unit is so deep that head coach Bob Daniels believes he will have trou­ble decid­ing which play­ers to dress.

“I think it is going be a real headache for me though,” said Daniels, “I can already see real issues in try­ing to decide the six defense­men dressing.”

Goals allowed are not mea­sured solely by the defen­sive play, but by goal­tend­ing as well. Daniels said that the goalie posi­tion is still a ques­tion mark in terms of who will be the starter on open­ing night. Daniels would like the goal­tend­ing to improve this season.

“It was ade­quate for our team,” said Daniels. “We want to be a cham­pi­onship team, but we need cham­pi­onship goaltending.”

Junior Pat Nagle started 22 of the team’s 38 games last sea­son and had a 2.29 goals against aver­age (GAA) in con­fer­ence play. Sophomore Taylor Nelson started 16 games and recorded a 2.39 GAA, while senior Jordan Barber did not appear in any con­tests. Regardless of who starts, Daniels said he wants one of them to step up into the start­ing role.

“I’d to see one of them really step up, if not both, and make a run at CCHA goalie of the year,” said Daniels.

The offense is the biggest ques­tion mark for the team, accord­ing to Daniels. A sea­son ago, the Bulldogs ranked 10^th in the CCHA in goals scored. The offense was expe­ri­enced last year and was sup­posed to carry the team.

“Last year I thought going in the strength of our team was going to be our offense,” said Daniels.

Ferris lost three of its top seven point-scorers from last sea­son, includ­ing Brendan Connolly, who led all play­ers with 28 points. There are, how­ever, many play­ers on the ros­ter that had lower goals and assists last sea­son than the pre­vi­ous year.

“The good news is, within our locker room, we have guys that have had good years,” said Daniels, “they just didn’t have them last year.”

Daniels said there is a pos­si­bil­ity of mov­ing a defense­man to for­ward on a given night if the offense needs some help.

“I’m not going to limit myself to keep­ing guys in the stands if we can find a way that they could help us,” said Daniels.

Senior cen­ter Cody Chupp will serve as the team cap­tain for the sec­ond con­sec­u­tive sea­son. Daniels said that Chupp is a good stu­dent, a mature player, and an extremely hard worker. Assistant cap­tains have not been selected, but Daniels said he will announce them dur­ing the season.

Ferris begins the 2009–2010 sea­son with an exhi­bi­tion game against Wilfred Laurier on Oct. 4 at 2:00 p.m. in Ewigleben Ice Arena.