The nation­ally No. 11-ranked Ferris State hockey team is placed third in the con­fer­ence stand­ings with eight games left in the reg­u­lar season.

After Michigan State fell 5–4 to Michigan on Saturday, Ferris is just two points behind the Spartans with 39 points. Nationally No.1-ranked Miami leads the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) with 51 points; with only one of the top six teams in the con­fer­ence remain­ing on its sched­ule, it will prob­a­bly fin­ish there.

Beyond the top three teams, the mid­dle of the CCHA stand­ings is con­gested as seven teams are sep­a­rated by only four points. The final four weeks of the sea­son should make for some great enter­tain­ment as teams jos­tle for play­off positions.

Perennial pow­er­houses Michigan and Notre Dame are hit­ting their stride and could be dan­ger­ous in the CCHA tour­na­ment. Alaska, Ohio State and Nebraska-Omaha fall in line behind them and will be look­ing to move up in the final month.

Ferris is in posi­tion to fin­ish in the top four in the con­fer­ence, some­thing it hasn’t done since 2003. A top-four fin­ish guar­an­tees a first round bye in the con­fer­ence tour­na­ment and a home series in the quar­ter­fi­nals. Bulldog head coach Bob Daniels said that has been a pri­mary goal since the begin­ning of the season.

The Bulldogs are ranked sec­ond in the CCHA in offense and defense. With over 20 penalty min­utes per game, how­ever, Ferris is also the most penal­ized team in the CCHA.

The remain­ing sched­ule isn’t exactly a cake walk, as the Bulldogs host Northern Michigan before trav­el­ling to the upper penin­sula to play at Lake Superior State.

Ferris has a huge home-and-home series against Michigan State the fol­low­ing week, which could decide sec­ond place in the CCHA. The sea­son con­cludes with a home-and-home series against rival Western Michigan, ranked last in the conference.

Ferris has eight games remain­ing, while Michigan State and Notre Dame have only six. The Spartans travel to Alaska before clos­ing out the sea­son with a series against Ferris and Bowling Green State.