Ferris State Hockey Drops WCHA Opener At Home To Michigan Tech

Game Highlights
Press Conference


Big Rapids, Mich. – The Ferris State University men's ice hockey team opened Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) play with a loss to the nationally 16th-ranked Michigan Tech Huskies on Friday (Oct. 16) night inside FSU's Ewigleben Ice Arena.               

The Huskies pulled out a 5-1 road win in their first official action of the 2015-16 campaign against a Bulldog team with two regular-season outings in hand.

MTU found its way onto the scoreboard first when Tyler Heinonen shot a backhand into the glove of Ferris State junior goaltender Charles Williams midway thru the opening period. Initially, the call on the ice was no goal, but upon further review, the officials ruled Williams' glove was behind the goal line when the puck entered. Heinonen scored on the powerplay at 11:12 of the first period with Alex Petan and Brett Boeing on the assists.

Then, just over a minute letter, Brent Baltus made it 2-0 in favor of the Huskies when he found himself open between the circles and shot it past Williams. Dane Birks and Malcolm Gould assisted on the play.              

CJ Eick opened the scoring for the Huskies in the second period when Boeing and Chris Leibinger found him on a breakaway to put the Huskies up 3-0 at 9:12 of the middle frame.      

Petan then struck on the powerplay at 18:59 of the second to cap the Huskies' scoring in the period when he made it 4-0 in favor of MTU. Boeing found his third assist of the night with Mark Auk receiving his first of the year.             

Heading into the third and final period, the Bulldogs inserted freshman goaltender Darren Smith, who made his college hockey debut.            

The Bulldogs pushed back at the beginning of the third and final stanza when junior forward Chad McDonald found a loose puck and shoveled it in between the legs of Michigan Tech goaltender Jamie Phillips at 16 seconds of the third period. Senior defenseman Sean O'Rourke tallied his first assist on McDonald's first goal of the season.               

The Huskies, though, wrapped up the scoring at 3:14 of the third when Petan scored his second goal of the night, which was Michigan Tech's third power play goal of the evening. Boeing notched his fourth assist of the night in his first career collegiate game.                

Williams (0-2-1) received the loss in net for the Bulldogs despite making 22 saves while Phillips claimed the win via a 31-save performance. Smith made eight stops in relief for the Bulldogs.

Ferris State went 0-4 on the powerplay with six shots while the Huskies went 3-6 on the powerplay. Michigan Tech finished with 35 shots to 32 for the Bulldogs. Overall, MTU was called for six penalties totaling 12 minutes while the Bulldogs had eight infractions for 27 minutes overall.              

Ferris State returns to action hoping to earn a weekend split against Michigan Tech on Saturday (Oct. 17) with the puck drop set for 7:07 pm (ET) inside the Ewigleben Ice Arena.

Tickets for Saturday's game are on sale thru the FSU Athletics Ticket Office and online at StarTickets.com. For additional ticket information, please call (231) 591-2888 or visit FerrisStateBulldogs.com.