Ferris State Hockey Battles Wisconsin To Overtime Deadlock In Weekend Opener

Big Rapids, Mich. - The Ferris State University men's ice hockey squad battled Big Ten Conference member Wisconsin to an exciting 1-1 overtime deadlock in the series opener on Friday (Nov. 28) evening at the Kohl Center before dropping a shootout to open a two-game weekend set at Madison, Wis.

Per NCAA rules, the game officially ended in a tie, but the shootout was utilized with the Badgers' Morgan Zulinick notching the lone goal.

The two teams fought thru two periods of scoreless action until Wisconsin finally jumped on the board first 2:13 into the third period on Matt Ustaski's second goal of the campaign. It was assisted by Cameron Hughes and Tim Davison, who both tallied their third assists of the year.

However, Ferris State responded slightly more than five minutes later when freshman center Andrew Dorantes tallied his first career goal off a feed from senior forward Justin Buzzeo at 7:29 of the final period.

The Bulldogs later had a potential game-winning goal from sophomore forward Jared VanWormer waved off with just over two minutes to play on an officials' replay reversal. From there, neither team was able to score the rest of regulation or thru the five-minute overtime session.

Ferris State posted a 35-23 edge in total shots for the night with seven in the first period, 11 in the second and 12 in the third. Meanwhile, Wisconsin totaled eight in period one, seven in the second and eight in the third. The Bulldogs had all five shots during the overtime session.

FSU senior goaltender CJ Motte made 22 saves for FSU in 64:46 of action between the pipes while the Badgers' Joel Rumpel stopped 34 shots in 65 minutes of work.

Both teams were called for only three penalties totaling six minutes on the night with FSU going 0-of-3 on the power play and Wisconsin capitalizing once in three tries with the man advantage.

Following the overtime tie, the Bulldogs are now 7-6-1 on the year while Wisconsin is 0-8-1 overall to date.

The two teams will wrap up the weekend non-league set with the series' finale on Saturday (Nov. 29) night starting at 9:07 p.m. (ET) in Madison. The contest can be heard live on Sunny 97.3 FM and the Bulldog Sports Network online at FerrisStateBulldogs.com.

This weekend's action against the Badgers marks the first two games of a two-year scheduling agreement between the two schools as Wisconsin will pay a return visit to FSU's Ewigleben Ice Arena in the 2015-16 campaign.