The nation­ally No. 13-ranked Bulldog hockey team is head­ing to Joe Louis Arena for the CCHA semi­fi­nals after sweep­ing No. 18 Nebraska-Omaha at home.

The vic­to­ries gave Ferris its first trip to the CCHA Championships since the 2002–2003 sea­son and a 12–0 record all-time in CCHA Tournament games at home.

After tak­ing the first con­test of the best-of-three, sec­ond round series by a score of 3–1 on Friday, Ferris senior left wing Casey Haines scored a game-winning, over­time goal on Saturday to give the Bulldogs a 3–2 vic­tory and a berth in the semi­fi­nals. (more…)

The nation­ally No. 13-ranked Ferris hockey team shut down No. 18-ranked Nebraska-Omaha 3–1 in the first quar­ter­fi­nal game of the CCHA Tournament.

The Bulldogs lead the best-of-three play­off series 1–0 with another game to be played on Saturday. If Ferris wins, it will advance to the semi­fi­nals at Joe Louis Arena. If Nebraska-Omaha wins, the teams will play Sunday in a one-game, winner-take-all showdown.

Ferris improved to 11–0 all-time in home play­off con­tests. The Bulldogs have outscored the Mavericks 8–2 in three con­tests this season.

Bulldog junior goalie Pat Nagle stopped 33 of 34 shots in the game with the only Maverick goal com­ing in the final two minutes.

After a score­less first period, Ferris junior left wing Mike Embach opened the scor­ing 7:16 into the sec­ond period. Bulldog senior cen­ter Aaron Lewicki net­ted a power play goal with just over five min­utes left in the sec­ond to give Ferris a 2–0 lead.

Midway through the third period, Embach net­ted his sec­ond goal of the game on a power play to push the Bulldog lead to 3–0. Nebraska-Omaha scored with 1:23 left to avoid the shutout, but got no closer.

The Bulldogs went two for five on their power play oppor­tu­ni­ties, while lim­it­ing the Mavericks to zero for four on their power play chances.

Lewicki tal­lied a goal and an assist for the Bulldogs. Junior cen­ter Justin Menke and sopho­more defense­man Brett Wysopal added two assists each for Ferris in front of 862 spectators.

Miami (Ohio) topped Ohio State 6–2 and Northern Michigan snuck past Alaska 4–3 to take 1–0 leads in their series’. Michigan sur­prised Michigan State with a 5–1 vic­tory in East Lansing.

Ferris and Nebraska-Omaha bat­tle Saturday at 7:05 p.m. at Ewigleben Ice Arena.

The nation­ally No. 13-ranked Bulldog hockey team hosts No. 18 Nebraska-Omaha in a quar­ter­fi­nal matchup in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association Tournament this weekend.

The stakes are very high for the best-of-three series as the win­ner earns a trip to the semi­fi­nals at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

Ferris earned the third seed in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) and first-round bye in the con­fer­ence tour­na­ment with a 13−9−6−4 con­fer­ence record. The sixth-seeded Mavericks swept Bowling Green State with a pair of 6–1 vic­to­ries in Omaha in the open­ing round of the CCHA Tournament.

This marks the first home, quar­ter­fi­nal series for the Bulldogs since the 2002–2003 sea­son. Ferris will look to return the favor this year as the Mavericks swept the Bulldogs in the first round of the CCHA Tournament a sea­son ago.

Ferris swept the regular-season series with the Mavericks at home in the meet­ings as con­fer­ence foes as Nebraska-Omaha is leav­ing the CCHA after the season.

The home ice is typ­i­cally an advan­tage for the Bulldogs with the stu­dent sec­tion, the Dawg Pound, located behind the vis­it­ing team’s goal. However, stu­dents have not yet returned from spring break.

The Mavericks have the fourth-ranked offense in the CCHA with 3.08 goals per game while the Bulldogs are ranked fifth with 3.02 goals per game. Ferris is third in scor­ing defense, while Nebraska-Omaha ranks eighth.

Ferris senior left wing Blair Riley leads the Bulldogs with 34 points, 17 goals and 17 assists, while senior Eddie Del Grosso leads Nebraska-Omaha with 30 points.

The Bulldogs and Mavericks square off at 7:05 at Ewigleben Ice Arena on Friday.

Ferris vs. Nebraska-Omaha CCHA