The Bulldogs posted two shootout vic­to­ries over No. 1 Miami (Ohio)

The Ferris State hockey team upset nation­ally No. 1 ranked Miami (Ohio) with a pair of road shootout vic­to­ries over the weekend.

Ferris improved to 7−3−2 over­all this sea­son and 2−2−2−2 in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) after earn­ing four points in the con­fer­ence stand­ings. Head coach Bob Daniels believes the team is improved, but must con­tinue to work on a few areas.

“After this week­end, I think we have a chance to be a very good team,” said Daniels. “But we have to con­tinue to work hard if we’re going to get there.”

Ferris started the week­end with a 2–2 over­time tie on Friday, which led to a shootout vic­tory. Neither team jumped on the board in the first period, despite a com­bined 19 shots on goal by both teams. Sophomore goalie Taylor Nelson was instru­men­tal in the first period as he stopped 11 shots for Ferris.

The Bulldogs net­ted the first goal of the game as senior left wing Blair Riley scored a fast-break goal just 1:50 into the sec­ond period.

The team was able to hold off the offen­sive attack by the Red Hawks for most of the sec­ond period as Nelson made some key saves for the Bulldogs, includ­ing some highlight-worthy stops.

However, the Red Hawks man­aged to sneak in a last sec­ond goal as the team cap­i­tal­ized on a Bulldog turnover and scored the tying goal with only 1.3 sec­onds left in the period.

The game remained tied for the major­ity of the period. With 4:38 left in reg­u­la­tion, how­ever, Miami scored the go-ahead goal when Curtis McKenzie knocked in a loose puck in front of the Bulldog net for a 2–1 lead.

With just 23.3 sec­onds remain­ing in reg­u­la­tion, Ferris struck back as Riley tal­lied his sec­ond goal of the con­test as he tapped in a loose puck in front of the Miami goal to force overtime.

In the over­time period, nei­ther team could score a goal in the five-minute period as the teams went on to a three-player shootout.

During the shootout, Nelson stopped all three of Miami’s shots while Ferris scored on the first oppor­tu­nity as junior defense­man Zach Redmond snuck a wrist-shot past Miami’s Cody Reichard, giv­ing the team a shootout vic­tory and two points in the CCHA stand­ings. Nelson ended the night with 30 saves.

After post­ing the shootout vic­tory on Friday, Ferris found itself in another shootout after end­ing Saturday’s reg­u­la­tion period in a 1–1 tie.
Starting with a score­less first period, the Bulldogs struck first in the sec­ond period as senior right wing Aaron Lewicki scored a power-play goal mid­way through the period to give the team a 1–0 lead.

Ferris held the lead going into the third period, but the Red Hawks knot­ted up the score 5:28 in the period when Andy Miele knocked a slap-shot by junior goalie Pat Nagle.

Neither team was able to break the stale­mate in the third period and sent the game into a sec­ond con­sec­u­tive over­time period.

In the over­time, both teams attacked the net as they com­bined for nine shots on goal. Miami had a chance to take the game when the Bulldogs were down a player due to penalty, but Nagle made a huge save on a last-second shot by Miami to send the game to the sec­ond shootout of the series.

The Red Hawks struck first in the shootout as they scored on their first shot attempt. The Bulldogs retal­i­ated on their sec­ond shot attempt as Riley snuck in a shot to tie up the shootout 1–1.

Sophomore defense­man Chad Billins scored on the 11^th shot attempt for the team. Nagle shut the door on Miami with a glove save on the final shot attempt to give Ferris the 2–1 shootout vic­tory. A CCHA record 22 total skaters par­tic­i­pated in the shootout.

One of the keys in the week­end for the Bulldogs was the strong goalie play from both Nelson and Nagle, who com­bined for 69 saves in the vic­to­ries. Daniels was impressed with the play from both goalies.

“We received excel­lent goal­tend­ing from both guys this week­end,” said Daniels. “We’ve really appre­ci­ated the effort both Pat and Taylor have given us so far this season.”

Up next for Ferris will be a home series against con­fer­ence foe Ohio State University. Ohio State, 5−6−1 over­all, is 4−3−1−1 in the CCHA and is cur­rently in third place in the conference.