Ferris State University has come back from win­ter break win­ning three of their last four games. They’ll now pre­pare to face nation­ally 2^nd-ranked Ohio State this weekend.

The Bulldogs made their return to con­fer­ence play against the Alaska Nanooks Jan. 13–14 at the Ewigleben Ice Arena in Big Rapids.

“It’s nice to get back and play in front of your home fans and play at home,” Ferris senior cen­ter Jordie Johnston said. “It’d be per­fect if you could play every game at home.”

The series began Jan. 13 with a 4–4 tie between the Bulldogs and Nanooks. After over­time, the Nanooks man­aged to snag a shootout win over the Bulldogs. Ferris earned a league point from the tie. Though the Bulldogs did not win the shootout, Johnston said it was more frus­trat­ing fail­ing to cap­i­tal­ize in regulation.

In the series finale, Jan. 14, Ferris received multi-point efforts from junior for­ward Matthew Kirzinger and sopho­more for­ward Garrett Thompson in their 4–3 win over Alaska.

“We were hop­ing to come out with six points, but basi­cally a tie and a win is not a ter­ri­ble week­end by any means,” Johnston said.

Johnston tal­lied his 13^th goal of the sea­son in the final bout against the Nanooks. Johnston leads the squad in scor­ing with 21 points this sea­son. Johnston has gen­er­ated seven points (5G, 2A) for the Bulldogs since the return from break.

“My line mates and I are really start­ing to click,” said Johnston.

Ferris senior defense­man Chad Billins gave the Bulldogs a 2–1 lead in the sec­ond period with his goal. Kerzinger net­ted a goal of his own in the third period. Thompson made the game-winning goal.

Despite being out­shot by the Nanooks 28–20, the Bulldog’s senior net min­der Taylor Nelson man­aged to improve his record to 10−4−1.

Ferris has yet to lose since return­ing from break, win­ning 3 of its last four games.

The Bulldogs are 8−6−2−0 in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association and 14−8−2 overall.

Ferris will next play against Ohio State University Jan. 20–21 at Columbus, Ohio. Ohio State is cur­rently lead­ing the CCHA with 34 points. OSU owns a 10−4−3−1 con­fer­ence record.

“Any time you play a good team like that, every­body gets up for it,” Johnston said. “That’s really when you find out what your team is made of when you play a hard oppo­nent like OSU.”

According to U.S. College Hockey Online, Ohio State is nation­ally 5^th-ranked in team defense. The Bulldogs are not far behind the Buckeyes at 8^th-ranked.

“They’re going to be a really good oppo­nent,” Johnston said. “When we’re at our best, we’re defensive.”

Ohio State will rely on senior goal­tender Cal Heeter to help defend the net from the Bulldogs. Heeter holds the fifth best save per­cent­age in the league at .932 in 19 games.

Ferris fresh­man C.J. Motte holds the 13^th best save per­cent­age in the nation, .925. After 15 games this sea­son, Nelson holds a .923 save per­cent­age and is nation­ally 14^th-ranked.

The Bulldogs will look to limit the num­ber of penalty min­utes they receive against them. Ferris is among the lead­ers of penalty min­utes against, aver­ag­ing just over 17 min­utes a game in the box.

Ferris will be fac­ing an OSU team that con­verts on nearly 20 per­cent of their power play opportunities.

The two teams will meet on Jan. 20 and the puck will drop at 7:05 p.m. in Columbus.