Ferris State & Alaska Finish Weekend With Second-Straight Overtime Tie

Ferris State & Alaska Finish Weekend With Second-Straight Overtime Tie

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ig Rapids, Mich. - It took a second-straight 65-minute effort for the Ferris State University men's ice hockey team to earn a point as the Bulldogs capped off a weekend series with a 3-3 tie against the Alaska Nanooks on Saturday (Nov. 21) night inside FSU's Ewigleben Ice Arena.

After an overtime deadlock in Friday's Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) opener, the Bulldogs fell behind early in Saturday's finale when Jasen Fernsler found himself wide open in front of FSU freshman goaltender Darren Smith and fired home his first goal of the season to put the Nanooks up 1-0 at 5:48 of the first period. Colton Sparrow and John Mullally tallied assists on the goal.     

In the first period, the Nanooks outshot Ferris State 12-11, which woke up the Bulldogs.

Junior forward Kyle Schempp knotted the game at a goal apiece at 5:10 of the second period when junior forward Gerald Mayhew found Schempp on a rush for his team-best 11th assist of the season. Senior defenseman Brandon Anselmini marked his fourth assist of the year on the goal.          
Junior forward Chad McDonald got on the board next with a slapshot from the top of the circle that beat Nanooks' goaltender Jesse Jenks at 10:53 of the second period from Jared VanWormer and Simon Denis.           

The goal went under a lengthy review, after which the Nanooks scored 23 seconds later at 11:16 of the second to tie the game at two goals each. Josh Erickson fired a shot past Smith from just inside the blue line. Josh Atkinson and Ryker Leer had assists on the goal.          

The second period effort on shots favored the Bulldogs 17-6 as they shook off the dust from the first period.           

Senior forward Matt Robertson scored his fourth goal of the year to put the Bulldogs up 3-2 at 14:15 of the third period when senior defenseman Zach Dorer threaded a needle to Robertson on the rush, who redirected it past Jenks. Mayhew had his second assist of the game and 12th of the season on the goal.            

The Bulldogs were called for a five-minute major penalty for contact to the head at 15:08 of the final period and went on the penalty kill for the last 4:52 of regulation.            

Nolan Huysmans scored for Alaska to tie the game at 3-3 on the power play with an extra attacker, as Jenks was on the bench, from Tyler Morley and Alec Hajdukovich at 19:18 in the third period.            

With the tie, Ferris State moved to 5-5-4 on the season and 4-4-2 in the WCHA, as the Nanooks climbed to 4-6-2 overall and 2-4-2 in the WCHA.            

Ferris State outshot the Nanooks 42-37 on the evening with FSU's Smith making 34 saves to Jenks' 39.           

With the man advantage, the Nanooks went 1-5 and the Bulldogs finished 0-3 for the evening.

The Bulldogs will hit the road for a two-game weekend series at Lake Superior State starting Friday, Nov. 27. Puck drop is set for 7:07 p.m. (ET) in Sault Ste. Marie.