Guiding the Puck: Sophomore Jordie Johnston pulls away from a Norhern Michigan oppo­nent at Wink Arena on Friday. The game ended with a 3–3 tie in over­time. Saturday’s loss brings the team to a 17−8−4 record for the sea­son. Photo By: Kate Dupon | Photographer

Northern Michigan senior goalie Brian Stewart earned his third shutout of the sea­son as he stopped all 51 Bulldog shots in the 4–0 victory.

Ferris out­shot Northern Michigan 51–21 in the game, includ­ing a 21–4 shot advan­tage in the sec­ond period. Including the 4–3 shootout vic­tory by the Wildcats on Friday night, Stewart saved 94 of the 97 shots he faced in the series. Ferris head coach Bob Daniels said Stewart was the dif­fer­ence in the game.

“We had plenty of point-blank chances, we just couldn’t find a way to solve him,” said Daniels.

Wildcat sopho­more for­ward Justin Florek scored two goals, one short­handed, in a 3:13 span in the first period and that proved to be all Northern Michigan would need. Northern Michigan was 1 for 5 on its power play oppor­tu­ni­ties, while Ferris did not score on any of its nine power play chances.

Despite the loss, Daniels was pleased with the team’s per­for­mance over­all and said he felt that all four offen­sive lines were “humming.”

“That looked to me like a team that wanted to win tonight and was play­ing hard,” said Daniels.

The Bulldogs remain in third place in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) stand­ings with 40 points. Ferris is 17−9−4 over­all and 11−7−4−3 in con­fer­ence play. The Bulldogs are 12−3−1 at home this sea­son and 4−5−3 on the road.

Since a series sweep on Notre Dame on Jan. 10, Ferris is 1−5−2 in its last eight con­tests. The Bulldogs claimed a shootout vic­tory over Ohio State, but has gar­nered six points over the stretch. Ferris senior cap­tain Cody Chupp said the team is frus­trated, but knows they have the per­son­nel to get the job done.

“As a whole team we are try­ing to get back to where we were,” said Chupp.

Daniels said some of the Bulldogs’ recent strug­gles can be traced to the offen­sive line of seniors Cody Chupp, Blair Riley and Casey Haines. Over the past eight games, the line pro­duced three goals and eight assists. Chupp, Riley and Haines pro­duced 67 points over the first 22 games of the season.

“That was a line ear­lier in the year that was scor­ing a lot of goals for us and right now they are com­ing up empty,” said Daniels.

The Bulldogs travel to the upper penin­sula this week­end for a piv­otal series against the Lake Superior State Lakers. The Lakers are 14−11−5 over­all, includ­ing an 8−5−1 record on their home ice. Ferris and Lake Superior State split the sea­son series a sea­son ago. The Bulldogs are 40−62−13 all-time against the Lakers.

Check out the video of the shootout between the Bulldogs and Wildcats at http://​bit​.ly/​d​z​3​I68

Check out the photo gallery for more pho­tos from the game at http://​bit​.ly/​b​6​W​kFN

Play-by-play action from the game can be read at http://​www​.fsu​torch​.com/​2​0​1​0​/​0​2​/​0​5​/​l​i​v​e​/​f​s​u​-​v​s​-​n​o​r​t​h​e​r​n​-​m​i​c​h​i​g​a​n​-​1​-​o​f​-2/